Allah will decide our PM candidate, PAS tells Dr M

PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said today his party will leave it to Allah to decide the party's prime ministerial candidate.

"PAS holds to the prophet's hadith, which said 'leadership belongs to Allah and he will send whom he wants'," Takiyuddin told Malaysiakini.

He was asked to respond to Bersatu chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who questioned whether PAS supported him or Najib Abdul Razak as prime minister, or whether PAS had its own prime ministerial candidate.

Takiyuddin described Mahathir's (photo) demand to name a prime ministerial candidate before the election as "a new political teaching".

"Looks like Mahathir wants to introduce a new political teaching in Malaysia. Parties that want to contest in the general election will need to name their respective prime ministerial candidates.

"The key now is PAS does not choose Mahathir or Najib. We will cross the bridge when we get to it," he said.

In a statement later, Takiyuddin said he understood the need for Harapan to name its prime ministerial candidate.

"Clearly, their internal problems require such a strategy.

"Furthermore, this strategy is also required to convince Malay voters in particular that Harapan is not being led by DAP," he said.

Takiyuddin said PAS does not face the same problem and therefore does not need to follow the same strategy.

"Politics is too dynamic to do so (naming a prime ministerial candidate)," he said.

Mahathir was on Jan 7 named as Pakatan Harapan's prime ministerial candidate.

At a press conference yesterday, Mahathir questioned PAS' choice of prime minister, in response to speculations about a pact between PAS and Umno.

"Is their candidate (Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak or me?

"We want to know. If they say who their candidate is, I think they can win (in the coming election) if people like their candidate," Mahathir was quoted as saying. - Mkini