Bersatu issued a five-point rebuttal to PAS yesterday, following a broadside from the Islamist party’s president, Abdul Hadi Awang.
In a statement, the Bersatu political bureau said that such issues should have been addressed internally, but that it would respond in kind to Hadi’s public remarks.
Firstly, Bersatu said the Perlis coup last year should not have been brought up again, as the menteri besar’s appointment is the prerogative of the state ruler.
Further, Bersatu said that Perlis ruler Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail had summoned both Hadi and Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin for an audience on Oct 25 last year.
However, the meeting was cancelled after Hadi could not attend due to unspecified reasons.
This then led to the ruler asking the parties to submit their candidates for menteri besar, leading to the change in office.
Bersatu reiterated its position that it did not betray PAS, but merely upheld a royal decree.
‘Takiyuddin did not respond for days’
Meanwhile, in its second rebuttal regarding events in Negeri Sembilan - where Hadi was unhappy that Bersatu dropped its pursuit for a change in government - the political bureau passed the buck back to PAS.
It said that after Umno ultimately resolved to maintain the Pakatan Harapan-led state government, Bersatu secretary-general Azmin Ali had tried to make plans together with his PAS counterpart Takiyuddin Hassan.
However, it claimed that Takiyuddin did not respond for several days to Azmin’s suggestions for Perikatan Nasional to stand and oppose Umno’s change in position.
It said that PN’s continued support for Umno to form a new state government was no longer appropriate after the latter decided to stick with Harapan.
Bersatu’s Negeri Sembilan assemblypersons had on May 4 said they were taking a neutral position for the sake of political stability, while accusing Umno of confusing the public.
Bersatu said in its statement yesterday that it would also be formally responding to a letter from Takiyuddin seeking an explanation from the party on its actions in Negeri Sembilan.
‘We did not prevent others from joining PN’
Regarding Bersatu’s alleged interference in the PAS administration of Kedah and Kelantan by demanding a change in excos and the deputy legislative speaker, Bersatu said this was only a result of the party terminating the membership of elected representatives for disciplinary breaches.
Bersatu also rebutted allegations that it had no grassroots to back up its demand for seats, saying that the party continues to grow and is receiving hundreds of membership applications each day.
The party’s political bureau also denied Hadi’s accusation that Bersatu had blocked other parties from joining PN.
Instead, it said its position was that PN can make electoral pacts with other parties and decide on their coalition membership after an election.
Further, it said that this was decided collectively by the PN supreme council at a meeting and was upheld as recently as May 16. - Mkini
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