Zaid: Working with PAS will lead to BN's downfall

Working with PAS will be BN's downfall, former law minister Zaid Ibrahim said today.

In his latest blog post, Zaid claimed that friendship with the Islamist party will be Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his gang's "nail in the coffin".

"I have never seen an awakening of the people of Malaysia at the scale which we are now witnessing," he said, expressing confidence that BN will be defeated in the coming general election.

Zaid claimed BN, through the Election Commission (EC), had tried every trick, including redrawing boundaries, to help the coalition win some seats, but "it is an exercise in futility".

He dubbed EC's move to continue with its redelineation without Selangor (which is currently challenging the exercise in court), as a "desperate" and "low class act" that defies the rules and principles under laws of redelineation.

The former Umno man further claimed that PAS, under the leadership of its current president Abdul Hadi Awang, is losing support in "every corner of Kelantan".

"In the days of Tok Guru Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, PAS would gather 10,000 or so supporters at their political ceramah without difficulty. Today, PAS under Hadi can hardly organise a ceramah at all for fear that they will have no crowd."

He cited the turnout for a speech by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in Kota Baru on March 15, and by PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, in Tumpat a day later, which he put at 10,000 and 1,200 respectively, to make his case.

Umno's support for PAS' Act 355 would also result in the breaking up of BN, as MCA, Gerakan and MIC will "not even know what hit them", Zaid said.

He added that Umno's move (to take over the bill) is also a betrayal to the vision of former prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman and other earlier leaders, for a multiethnic, multireligious democracy.

Zaid, who is now a DAP member, then dubbed Umno's "taking over" of Act 355, as unlawful and unconstitutional, and said it should have been rejected outright by the Parliament speaker as it did not get the consent from all states and the Conference of Rulers.

He questioned the need for amendments for the act, as "there has not been one case in any syariah court in the country where the syariah judge or syariah prosecutor has complained that they could not do justice because their existing powers of sentencing were woefully inadequate".

Zaid said Malays will be able to see through Najib's government's and Hadi's plan to conjure up the Act 355 political idea to "mislead Muslims" to think that they are the champions of Islam.

"I am sure the people will dump Najib and gang this time. The general idea is that by working closely with PAS, BN will be saved, but this will not happen.

"In fact, PAS will now destroy BN, after it almost succeeded in destroying Pakatan Rakyat," he said, while warning the Selangor state government to be wary of PAS' presence in its administration.-Mkini