Wan Azizah: We need PAS with us to oust BN

PKR leader says it's about numbers, opposition can't defeat Barisan with just PKR, DAP and Amanah

KUALA LUMPUR: The Barisan Nasional cannot be defeated if the opposition does not include PAS in a new coalition to fight the next general election, PKR leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said today.

She said the opposition could not do it with just PKR, DAP and Parti Amanah Negara, the new party of breakaway PAS dissidents.

“It’s a matter of numbers. We need the numbers,” she said, referring to Malaysia’s first-past-the-post election system.

She said September 22 would be a day of reckoning for the opposition. A roundtable meeting is scheduled for that day, Tuesday, on forming a new coalition to replace the Pakatan Rakyat.

PAS leaders have said they would not attend, but Wan Azizah said the party was welcome should they change their mind.

“We need everybody who are actually together on the common platform… if we are together, then majority wins,” she said after attending a dialogue on coalition government and coalition building in Malaysia.

Speaking at the event, Wan Azizah said that the Tuesday meeting would determine whether the parties would function as a formal coalition, an electoral pact or just remain as separate opposition parties.

The meeting would determine whether the opposition would move together towards a common future or remained “in a self-made political prison of the past” she said.

The Pakatan Rakyat alliance was declared dead by the DAP after differences between the party and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s insistence on enforcing hudud criminal penalties in Kelantan. Amanah was formed by a faction of liberal and progressive PAS leaders who were defeated by ulama-backed candidates.

Last week, PAS leader Abdul Hadi Awang said the party would not cooperate with Amanah in any coalition but would go ahead with its relationship with PKR. It had already severed ties with the DAP after its general assembly.

However, PKR has urged the DAP and PAS to put aside their differences in a common cause against Barisan Nasional.