THE “infidel” tag PAS previously slapped on Umno no longer applies, said Abdul Hadi Awang today.
“Who said we ‘kafirkan’ Umno (declared Umno as infidels)? The issue no longer arises,” the PAS president told reporters in Terengganu today.
He was asked about Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s criticism of PAS as a hypocrite over the Islamist party’s move to forge a political cooperation with Umno, whose members it used to call “infidels”.
The parties two days ago formalised their cooperation with the setting up of technical committees to explore collaboration, to take on the Pakatan Harapan government.
Hadi said his critical stance had not been directed solely at the Barisan Nasional lynchpin, but all Muslims who did not abide by Islamic principles and laws.
He dismissed Dr Mahathir’s claim that Umno-PAS unity is aimed at restoring Najib Razak to power.
“We just want to restore Malay leadership. Najib isn’t even the prime minister or Umno president any more.”
He also downplayed the Umno-PAS pact, which Umno acting president Mohamad Hasan described as a “marriage”.
Hadi said PAS will work with any Malay party, including Dr Mahathir’s Bersatu, to resolve the issue of disunity among Malays.
“We will work with other parties, especially Malay parties, as we find Malays are split.
“We feel that we have to unite the Malay parties. The only ones left are PAS, Umno and Bersatu.
“We’ll work with Bersatu if need be. We consider it a Malay party.”
Hadi was also asked to comment on DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s initial remarks that the formalisation of an Umno-PAS pact was a declaration of war. Lim has since amended his statement.
“I think that is just his (Lim’s) own fear. He fears he can’t use Malays any more for his political agenda.
“PAS won’t neglect other races. We accept the principle of jus soli, that other races came here under the British and they became citizens.”
Lim, in his amended statement to Malaysiakini, dropped the word “war”, and said Umno-PAS unity takes aim at non-Malays “under the banner of Malay unity”.
However, the Youth wings of PAS, Umno, MIC and MCA still plan to lodge a police report against the finance minister.
THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT
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