KUALA LUMPUR: PAS faces an impossible mission to accomplish as it aims to contest 130 parliament seats and form the next Selangor state government.
“It is an impossible mission and not realistic. The reality is that there would be three-cornered fights and going by current developments, PAS would be entering the election without the support of the non-Malays,” said political analyst Hisomuddin Bakar of Ilham Centre.
“The last two parliamentary by-elections in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar also showed that the non Malays are not supporting PAS,” he said in reference to the by-elections that were held in 2016.
Umno retained both the parliament seats after coming out victorious in three-cornered battles.
The analyst also viewed PAS’ stand of wanting to form the federal government or getting into a coalition to form a government as perplexing. He puts the issue forth in the form of two questions.
“Will PAS form a government with Pakatan Harapan after describing Amanah as a mosquito party and telling off PPBM to learn from PAS?
“Will PAS form a government with Umno/BN even though its president has said that the party is not collaborating with Umno?”
Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar who quit PAS earlier this month meanwhile dismissed the possibility of PAS ruling Malaysia altogether.
“It is clear that PAS will not rule Malaysia. They are targetting a few states and only 40 parliament seats,” he told Berita Daily.
“PAS president claimed that they would form a government or get into a coalition to form one. PAS has already rejected Amanah, DAP and PPBM,” he said in reference to the Pakatan Harapan component parties.
“How can PAS go back on its words (to form a coalition with Pakatan Harapan)?” he said.
Mahfuz also explained why PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang made such an announcement.
“Hadi wants to keep his party members calm since the party members at grassroots level are worried over the number of members quitting PAS and the willingness of PAS members to vote for Pakatan components.”
Losing it all in Selangor
During Fastaqim 2.4 rally in Shah Alam yesterday, Hadi announced that his party would be contesting more than 130 parliament seats out of the total 222.
Hadi said that PAS was prepared to form the next government and was willing to get into a coalition to form a government.
He also announced that PAS wants to capture Selangor.
In GE13, PAS contested 73 parliament seats while being a coalition partner in Pakatan Rakyat. The Islamist party won 21 seats but following the break up which led to the formation of Amanah and Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar turning independent, PAS now has only 13 seats.
In Selangor too, PAS has 13 state seats. The party contested 21 seats but won 15. Two of its assemblymen for Morib and Ulu Klang joined Amanah.
On PAS’ intention to take Selangor, Hisomuddin said that the Islamist party’s lawmakers must be prepared to lose power.
“PAS would return to its form as was the case after the 11th general election without a single seat. Its leaders in Selangor need to be prepared to lose all the 15 state seats that they won.”
On the issue of Selangor, Mahfuz said Hadi’s announcement was strange.
“It is strange. PAS is part of the Selangor government and yet it aims to form the government in Selangor. Umno /BN also has similar aims. So now we have two groups aiming to take over Selangor.”
Mahfuz also criticised his former party for not having political morality.
“PAS has not been honest in the Selangor. If it had an ounce of political morality, PAS would have quit the Selangor government altogether which includes the political appointments at all levels in the state.”
Source; https://www.beritadaily.com/ge14-mission-impossible-pas/
