Malaysiakini news: Kula: PAS-Ikatan pact ‘smoke and mirrors’ game




PAS’ penchant for self-delusion is unlimited. judging from its tie-up with Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan), said DAP national vice-chair M Kulasegaran.

“After tickling the public’s curiosity by saying it is linking up with a multiracial opposition party, PAS announces that Ikatan is its new partner in opening up a third force in Malaysian politics,” said the MP for Ipoh Barat.

“How is a pact between an Islamist party and one devoted to the vision and ideals of Malaysia’s founding prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman going to amount to a third force in our politics?” asked Kulasegaran.

He said PAS under president Abdul Hadi Awang has been playing misty on all the major issues besetting the country.

“Whether it is hudud, on which they were adamant some time ago and now have cooled towards it, or on the RM2.6 billion in the prime minister’s accounts, on which they do not think something grave has taken place, or on the Citizens’ Declaration, to which they are indifferent, PAS is all smoke and mirrors,” said the lawyer-legislator.

“Now PAS wants the public to believe that by linking up with a party promoting the vision of Tunku Abdul Rahman who was insistent that Malaysia cannot be an Islamic state, the party is deepening the mystery of where it actually stands on the burning issues of the day.

“Either its capacity for self-delusion is unlimited or it thinks that the public can be gulled by whatever it puts out about where the party stands at any one time on any issue,” said Kulasegaran.

He noted this situation was in stark contrast to the time when the late Nik Aziz Nik Mat was the spiritual leader of the Islamist party.

“Whether you agreed or disagreed with him, you could not be in any doubt as to where he stood and the party’s allies or adversaries took their agreement or their dissent from where he drew the PAS position on an issue,” said Kulasegaran.

The DAP leader said these days the PAS stand on an issue was a guessing game, “a game of smoke and mirrors such that one is led to think that politics is a sport for magicians and shamans”.

“I think the party is headed for a rude awakening at the next general election,” added Kulasegaran.




Comments