Guan Eng: PAS election won’t solve Pakatan leadership problem

(Malay Mail Online) – The PAS party election will not solve the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leadership crisis as its president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang will most likely retain his post, Lim Guan Eng said today.

Hadi will square off against former PAS vice-president Ahmad Awang in the party election which will be held next month.

“Nothing will change, for us we know that Hadi is going to win,” the DAP secretary-general told a news conference here at the Parliament lobby.

At a function earlier today, Lim made the same prediction, saying that Abdul Hadi would “definitely” win the presidential contest.

“Hadi will definitely be the next president of PAS, that’s a given already but despite that we are sticking our position because we don’t want to be played for a fool,” he told reporters at the soft launch of the Penang Institute office here.

Yesterday, Lim put a damper on the proposal for PR to form a shadow Cabinet, pointing out that his party and PAS have yet to iron their differences over hudud.

Although the Bagan MP did not name names, he also coyly reminded his PR allies that “one person” in PAS has even shown support for Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN chief Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The Penang chief minister, who was likely referring to Hadi, added that when it comes to policies in PAS, it is only this one leader who makes all the decisions.

He added that should there be a meeting between PR parties, DAP will speak with PAS secretariat as a whole and not just its president, in order to iron out how such an arrangement will play out despite the two parties’ differences.

This comes after Lim portrayed Hadi as Umno’s “Trojan Horse” to dismantle Pakatan Rakyat after the latter tabled a private member’s bill on hudud in March without obtaining consensus from all component parties.

DAP has since cut ties with the PAS president due to the latter’s insistence on pushing forward with the Islamic Penal Code despite the former’s opposition, which is one of the main causes of PR’s infighting.

The crisis is far from over, as Hadi will again attempt to table a private member’s Bill in Parliament this month to remove legal barriers to the enforcement of hudud, in a move likely to renew and exacerbate hostilities among the supposed allies.

The current conflict over hudud is threatening a repeat of the clash that killed off the pact’s predecessor, Barisan Alternatif, with senior leaders such as DAP’s Lim Kit Siang already exploring a “post-PR” future.