Analysts see PAS boycotting Gerakan, not just Lau

 

Gerakan president Dominic Lau’s public snub by PAS on Tuesday was indicative of the dissatisfaction felt by the Islamist party’s grassroots, analysts said.

PETALING JAYA: PAS will likely boycott Gerakan as a whole, not just its president, Dominic Lau, political analysts said.

On Tuesday, Lau was asked to leave a Perikatan Nasional (PN) ceramah in Sungai Dua after turning up uninvited.

Lau, whose Bayan Lepas candidacy was said to have upset PAS grassroots in the Malay-majority seat, later tried to play down the incident, initially claiming it was “untrue”.

However, a video by Malaysiakini showed Lau being prevented by a Penang PAS leader from following the party’s vice-president Idris Ahmad onstage.

The PAS leader could be heard telling Lau: “Tak boleh (No you can’t). You go away.”

Previously, Kosmo reported that the Bayan Lepas PAS division had called for a boycott of the Aug 12 polls, should Lau be fielded as a candidate there. It also threatened to shut down its operation centres.

Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara said Lau was not invited to the ceramah to placate PAS grassroots angered by his nomination.

“It demonstrates problems for Gerakan, for the Bayan Lepas seat and other seats that were given to the party in Penang.

“I’m sure PAS supporters will boycott any Gerakan candidate in Penang after the Bayan Lepas fiasco,” he said.

Azmi added that Gerakan’s prospects in Penang did not look good, as it is reliant on PAS and Bersatu supporters for roughly 90% of its votes, nearly all of whom are Malays.

James Chin of the University of Tasmania said PAS was clearly boycotting Lau, adding that the party’s leadership would not even step in to override its local Bayan Lepas branch.

“This means that, even though he is the president of a component party in PN, they do not respect him at all.

“Again, this is not surprising, because we know in PN it’s all about ‘Malay-first’,” he told FMT.

He added that Lau had brought this problem upon himself, by attempting to contest a Malay majority seat.

“Yet he wanted it because he wants a chance to win, he knows his chances of winning in a Chinese majority seat are slim,” he said.

He said Gerakan is in a dilemma as it has nowhere else to go and that as a PN component the party was likely to suffer further mistreatment.

“They will continue to be insulted left and right, and the sad thing is that they will accept all the insults from Bersatu and PAS, no problem,” he said. - FMT