KUCHING: The state DAP staged a drama when it announced a pull-out from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) on Friday attracting media and public attention for political mileage, says SUPP Youth chief Tan Kai.
At a news conference yesterday, he said the state DAP had withdrawn from Barisan Alternative way back in 2001 when PAS insisted on implementing hudud law but they chose to stick together.
He thus questioned the sincerity of the state DAP in serving the people, especially when only the state-level (party) quit PR while maintaining the national-level alliance.
“Sarawak DAP withdrawing from PR is nothing new because it already happened once in 2001. Fourteen years have gone by and PAS has never changed its political ambition of implementing hudud law.
“You pull out of Sarawak PR yet remain a partner at the national-level. This is funny. Almost every newspaper carried the announcement of their withdrawal on the front page, making readers think it’s something new, but (it is) not,” he said at SUPP headquarters here.
Tan mocked the authority of DAP in PR given that the Rocket, with 26 parliamentary seats “is the big brother” while PAS with 21 parliamentary seats “the little brother”, and yet the former could not overturn what the latter had decided upon.
“In Barisan Nasional (BN), we are equal partners but in PR, we can clearly see that in Penang the DAP rules while in Kelantan, PAS has the say and in Selangor, PKR does its own things.
“How can Malaysians put their hope on them to manage the country?
“In Sarawak, SUPP, SPDP and PRS are all against hudud law because it is against the Federal Constitution.
“Hudud is not an issue in Sarawak at all.”
He said SUPP Youth wanted to tell the people that the pull-out of Sarawak DAP at the state-level “is just a drama”, alleging that the state DAP was aware of PAS never having given up on hudud law.
“PAS has never given up on hudud but the state DAP still wants to sleep with them. If they continue like this, there might be a third withdrawal after they have decided that they could work (together) again after this.”
Concurring with Tan, SUPP Youth publicity secretary Milton Foo said the state DAP is ‘evading their responsibility and trying to shift the focus of the implementation of hudud law’.
“We all know that hudud has always been the central gist of PAS. DAP cannot just say it is not their fault that they withdraw from Sarawak PR. They even refused to apologise for promoting PAS’ ideology of the so-called welfare state instead of Islamic state.”
Foo said what made it weirder was that state DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen, who is also vice-chairman at the national level, could live with a double position.
“Are you (Chong) saying you refuse to work with the state PAS and withdraw from PR Sarawak but still willing to work with the national PAS?
“It is the national PAS that is implementing hudud law and not Sarawak PAS. Isn’t it odd to pull out of the state PR and yet remain a partner at the federal-level. This is a drama and they are both the director and actors.”
He also ridiculed the state DAP’s invitation to the state BN component parties to form a new government together.
“DAP has been accusing the BN government of being corrupt and that they want to change the government. Indirectly, they are saying BN component parties are all corrupt.”
Showing a news report published months ago, Foo said even the late former Singapore prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had described the DAP as opportunists.
Chong said on Friday that the state DAP had decided to quit PR as it could no longer work with PAS as a political partner.
He added that PAS had deviated from the PR common policy framework by pursuing the implementation of hudud law in Malaysia, and that the withdrawal decision “is also the wish of the majority of the people in Sarawak”.