BATU PAHAT: PAS will continue its alliance with Pakatan Rakyat even as it continues to clash with its allies over the Selangor menteri besar issue, said its president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, who has been blamed for straining ties among the coalition partners.

At the same time, Abdul Hadi struck a note of independence in his speech, insisting that PAS would stick to its own principles and identity instead of blindly aping the agenda of other parties.

He stressed that PAS had never betrayed its friends and that the party wanted its partners in Pakatan to do the same.

Although Abdul Hadi did not specifically refer to his Pakatan allies, it is understood that his message was aimed at PKR and DAP, which had been at odds with the Islamist party in the Selangor menteri besar (MB) crisis and earlier, the party’s plan to enforce hudud law in Kelantan.

“Political cooperation does not mean we assimilate into other parties or adopt other systems. Or that we use electoral victory as a benchmark for success to the point that we sacrifice our Islamic principles.

“Electoral victory must be used to implement Islamic principles,” Abdul Hadi said in his policy speech at the opening of the party’s 60th assembly yesterday.

“It is unfortunate that our cooperation has caused some of us to be intoxicated with power and to fight among ourselves.”

PAS leaders are divided over the Selangor MB crisis. Abdul Hadi and the party’s powerful Shura Council feel that Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim should not have been expelled from PKR, while the party’s elected central committee ruled that it will back PKR’s decision. — The Malaysian Insider


This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on September 19, 2014.