Kit Siang warns BN may retake Kelantan

By Nigel Aw
Malaysiakini
1:00PM Sep 28, 2014

Amid a backlash against PAS over its teetering in the Selangor crisis, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has warned that PAS-led Kelantan government may fall into the hands of BN.

Lim said this would be the case if the 4.5 percent vote swing against PAS and by extension Pakatan Rakyat, is replicated in other constituencies in the state.

“If Pengkalan Kubor happens (in all of Kelantan), Pakatan will only get 20 seats and BN will capture 25 seats.

“That means the power to rule in Kelantan would be lost,” he told a DAP fundraising dinner in Petaling Jaya last night.

Lim’s warning comes a week after PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kaiat warned that the Islamic party’s support among local Kelantanese had fallen below 50 percent, according to a post-mortem by the party’s central committee.

PAS vice president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Mat had dismissed that the Selangor crisis was a factor for the bigger loss at the Pengkalan Kubor by-election.

But Lim said if this was replicated in other states, Pakatan would suffer.

As such, it was imperative that all component parties abide by the coalition’s consensus.

“If we did not follow by our common policy framework, it would not have been possible for us to win 89 parliamentary seats and over 200 state assembly seats in the 13th general election.

“Umno would have recaptured two-thirds majority in Parliament,” he said.

He added Pakatan needed to study on how the coalition’s cooperation could continue working after PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (left) twice defied Pakatan’s consensus.

“In the last two Pakatan leadership council meetings on July 23 and Aug 17, even though a consensus was achieved, it was not followed by the PAS president.

“If consensus is not the basis for the Pakatan leadership council how are we going to cooperate?” he questioned.

Lim proposed the creation of a committee comprising three to four representatives from the respective parties in Pakatan in study the matter and resolve it.

Also present at the dinner were PAS state assemblypersons Saari Sungib (Hulu Kelang) and Hasnul Baharuddin (Morib) who had defied their own party to support Pakatan.

Lim asked the over 700 mostly Chinese voters present to give 100 percent support to the duo, who have been branded as “traitors” by some leaders in PAS.

DAP hopeful about Azmin

The Selangor crisis had been prolonged after PAS could not agree with DAP and PKR on the new Selangor menteri besar candidate.

The crisis was finally resolved after PKR deputy president Azmin Ali was sworn in as the new menteri besar.

Weighing in on the new government, Selangor DAP chief Tony Pua said he did not know if Azmin (right) would be a significantly better menteri besar but said he was hopeful.

“In my meeting with Azmin, he indicated that he wanted to correct the wrongs in the previous administration,” he said.

This, he added, would include a break from the previous administration under Abdul Khalid Ibrahim who had disregarded the voices of elected representatives.

Pua said he would also propose that the new Selangor government allocate funds to assist those being prosecuted under the Sedition Act, as a role model in standing up against the federal government’s injustices.

Echoing this, Damansara Utama state assemblyperson Yeo Bee Yin said she too was uncertain about Azmin but the new menteri besar had sent the right signals from day one.

“I was glad that on the first day he was sworn in, Azmin Ali stated that the Bible issue must be resolved,” she said.

Yeo was referring to the confiscation of 321 Malay-language and Iban-language copies of the Bible by the Selangor Islamic Religious Authorities which she said Khalid had failed to resolve.

“We need a leader who can solve sensitive issues, something Khalid was not able to do,” she asserted.