Hadi rejects ousting Najib ‘for time being’

Party unanimous about not voting against Budget, says there are other ways to unseat PM.

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition plans to bring down the Najib Razak government have been rejected “for the time being” by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, according to a news report.

He told Sinar Harian that the Islamist party did not want to bring down Najib for the time being but was more interested in making the Barisan Nasional government better.

He said the party would abstain from any vote against the 2016 Budget, which was tabled in Parliament on Oct 23. A vote against the Budget, if successful, would result in the Najib Razak government having to resign.

The party had unanimously agreed not to vote down the Budget, he was quoted as saying to Sinar Harian. “We will abstain and not vote to reject it completely, because our party’s policy is to support what’s good for the people and oppose what’s bad for the people,” he was quoted as saying.

“We don’t agree with some things (in the Budget), but we will not join the calls to vote down the Budget.

But PAS did not want to bring down Najib “for the time being”, nor was it interested in taking power but was committed towards helping the Barisan Nasional government become better.

However, PAS would not join forces with Umno, he said.

Hadi said the party was not interested in blindly opposing the government. There were other ways to remove Najib, such as through a confidence motion, but support was needed from Umno MPs. “Out of 220 seats, 89 are with the opposition; is this enough? Not unless Umno MPs vote along,” he was quoted as saying, according to Malaysian Insider.