At last, the PAS leadership of Datuk Seri Hadi Awang has admitted that under its stewardship, PAS is “down”.
I have never said that PAS is “out” but I dare to forecast that so long as the Hadi leadership continues to take a contrary position from the two former PAS Presidents Fadzil Nor and Yusuf Rawa and the former PAS Mursydul Am Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, PAS will continue to go further “down” in the Malaysian political landscape.
In response to my statement yesterday, PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan said I should not underestimate PAS party despite its weaker results in the May 9 general election and although PAS is “down”, it is not “out”.
The Kota Bharu MP noted that his party had gone to the polls without relying on the support of others, unlike Amanah, PPBM or even DAP.
Is the PAS Secretary-General suggesting that that he envisages a day when PAS on its own can win a general election in Malaysia, without support from any other political party? If so, the PAS leaders are living in a world of their own, unrelated to the realities on the ground.
The polling survey by Institute Darul Ehsan (IDE) on the eve of the Port Dickson by-election made a very correct forecast that PAS “is not expected to gain more than one percent of non-Malay votes”.
Was IDE wrong? Can Takiyuddin or any other PAS leader demonstrate that IDE forecast was wrong, and that PAS won by more than one per cent of non-Malay votes in the Port Dickson by-election?
If PAS cannot even win one per cent of non-Malay votes in Malaysia, can it ever succeed to be the Federal Government in Malaysia?
It is open secret that PAS had the tacit support of the top UMNO leaders in the Port Dickson by-election as part of the ongoing UMNO-PAS conspiracy of political co-operation, but the only benefit PAS gained from such an unholy alliance with UMNO was to save the deposit of the PAS candidate!
If PAS had contested on it own without any form of “blessing” from the top UMNO leadership – although this was countered by the candidature of the former UMNO Negri Sembilan Mentri Besar, Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad – the PAS candidate would have lost his deposit, as happened in the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018
I do not think that the two former PAS Presidents, Fadzil Nor and Yusuf Rawa, and the former PAS Mursydul Am Nik Aziz Nik Mat would have regarded it as a feather in the PAS cap to be able to save the deposit of a PAS candidate, only after entering into an unholy pact with UMNO.
I believe that the political extremists and opportunists in UMNO and PAS who fall back on the toxic and vicious politics of race, religion, hate, fear and lies are fighting a losing battle in an information era in plural Malaysia and the result of the Port Dickson by-election should be a salutary lesson for the UMNO and PAS leaders.
I do not believe that the 2.3 million Malay voters who voted for UMNO and 2 million voters who voted for PAS during the 14th General Election wanted Malaysia to become a rogue state, a sham democracy and a global kleptocracy where the leaders failed the fundamental religious test of being able to distinguish right from wrong, truth from lies and justice from injustice.
Pakatan Harapan wants to transform Malaysia from a global kleptoctracy to a leading nation of integrity, a goal which I am confident would have the support of those who had been misled to vote for UMNO and PAS in the 14th General Election.
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Monday 15th October 2018)