Pakatan is over, says DAP

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng says the party accepts the motion by PAS at its muktamar recently to sever ties with the former. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, June 16, 2015.

DAP's top leadership has moved ahead to declare that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has ceased to exist, and said it would only work with PKR and "other forces" to end Barisan Nasional's hold on federal power.

Its secretary-general, Lim Guan Eng, said the party's central executive committee, its highest decision-making body, last night resolved at a meeting to accept the motion by PAS at its muktamar or annual congress recently to sever ties with DAP.

"Effectively… Pakatan Rakyat ceases to exist," Lim said in a statement today.

DAP's decision comes as PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is also opposition leader, is still holding out hope that the crumbling pact can be revived.

Yesterday, she said there was an urgent need to review the working relationship between PAS, DAP and PKR to save PR from its demise.

She called for continuous discussions and solidarity in political cooperation. 

But Lim today said that since PR was founded based on consensus among the three parties, and was bound by the common policy framework, the PAS's muktamar motion had effectively killed off the pact.

"The DAP will work with PKR and all other forces who aspire to see the end of Umno-Barisan Nasional’s one-party rule to reshape and realign Malaysian politics with the aim of winning Putrajaya for the people," he said.

Lim also said that DAP would now support Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali in "reframing" the PR-led state government. Azmin is PKR deputy president.

"The immediate effect on the Selangor state government will be DAP’s support for the leadership of Azmin to reframe the state government with a new functioning coalition based on the PR common policy and the Selangor PR 2013 general election manifesto that received an overwhelming mandate of more than 60% of the popular vote," said Lim, who is also Penang chief minister.

In the Penang government, Lim had already challenged PAS representatives in the state government and its agencies to resign following PAS's motion to cut ties with his party.

Two PAS leaders, Mohamad Sabu and Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, did so while the state government yesterday removed Penang PAS secretary Mohd Fadzil Kemi who was an information officer in the Chief Minister's Office.  Yesterday, PAS's whip in the Penang Island City Council Mohd Nasir Yahya also tendered his resignation.

PAS's new leadership of pro-ulama leaders, however, said the motion was not binding and still had to be discussed by its shura council of clerics and scholars.

But PR was already crumbling, Lim said, and in his statement today detailed incidents over the past year where PAS and DAP had been at loggerheads.

These included the Selangor menteri besar crisis and violations of the pact's common agreements by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

He also cited Hadi's willingness to forge a unity government with Umno and his support for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and Hadi's insistence on implementing hudud in Kelantan by failing to discuss the Islamic penal code with PR partners first before they were tabled in the state legislature.

Lim also slammed the private motion by Hadi in Parliament to enable hudud's implementation as an act that "further immobilised" the PR leadership.

PR was formed in April 2008 following the 12th general election that year, after the three parties collectively won more than one-third of parliamentary seats and five state governments.

- TMI