Tuan Ibrahim: Mat Sabu placating himself with PAS-DAP tie-up redux

 

Amanah president Mohamad Sabu is placating himself with his sarcastic swipe that PAS and DAP could form another alliance in the future, according to PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

He recalled how the agriculture and food security minister had lobbed scathing criticisms at Umno in the past but has since joined hands with them in a coalition government.

“I think this (Mat Sabu’s remarks) is just to placate himself. Before this, he had constantly admonished Umno, calling them bandits. But suddenly, he is now in bed with them.

“So this is perhaps to put his soul at ease due to being condemned by his own supporters and others (for working with Umno),” he told Berita Harian.

Mohamad, popularly known as Mat Sabu, had said he would not be surprised if DAP and PAS, which are at loggerheads now, were reunited in the future.

He claimed that PAS is prepared to change partners to strengthen its position, as shown by its backing for former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s “Malay Proclamation”. 

Despite their diametrically opposed secular and theocratic ideologies, PAS and DAP were official allies twice in Barisan Alternatif and Pakatan Rakyat, the predecessors of Pakatan Harapan.

Meanwhile, Tuan Ibrahim stressed that PAS’ political cooperation with others is premised on the party’s principles.

“Before this, PAS had worked with DAP, and PAS knows what happened… 

“PAS rejects working with DAP, which has been our stand in the past (since parting ways). This continues to be PAS’ stand in Perikatan Nasional until now,” he added.

In 2019, when BN was in an alliance with PAS, MCA president Wee Ka Siong defended the cooperation by comparing it to DAP’s ties with the Islamist party in the past.

Following this, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang claimed that the PAS of present is not the same as the one which it worked with before.

“Wee is a poor student of history, as DAP had never worked with a PAS leadership which advocated such a toxic and vicious brand of politics, aimed at sowing suspicion, distrust and hatred among races and religions – which is not building a nation, but destroying the very social fabric of Malaysia.

"This was not the PAS which DAP worked with when we formed Barisan Alternatif in 1999 until 2001, and Pakatan Rakyat from 2008 to 2015,” he had said.

Following the last general election, MCA and DAP are now part of the same coalition government. - Mkini