KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 — PAS denied that it had issued an official letter purportedly stating that it had withdrawn from the ‘Pakatan Rakyat’.
Its vice-president, Salahuddin Ayub (pic) said the anonymous letter, which used the PAS letterhead, and purportedly signed by secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali, was a dirty ploy used by certain parties to divide the component parties in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
“I wish to emphasise that the PAS stand until today is to remain in the Pakatan Rakyat. And this stand has never changed until today. So, I consider the present development on the spreading of the anonymous
letter in cyber space as an irresponsible act to try and break up Pakatan Rakyat,” he said when contacted by Bernama, today.
He said that such a tactic was common in the present political game and he did not think that the spread of the anonymous letter would weaken the party nor the Pakatan Rakyat itself.
The anonymous letter, dated Aug 1, 2014, claimed that an Emergency Meeting of the PAS Central Working Committee had decided that the party withdraw from the Pakatan Rakyat, purportedly because the DAP did not respect the other coalition parties.
Besides urging all party members to respect the decision, the letter also stressed that PAS would not cooperate with the Barisan Nasional in championing the Islamic Nation agenda and the implementation of Hudud Law.
Commenting further, Salahudin said the letter was believed to have been deliberately spread by certain parties following the ‘cool relations’ between the two parties caused by the crisis on the move to replace the Selangor Menteri Besar.
“I feel it is certainly important for them to see the break, they will try to portray PAS as the cause (for the split)…I fully understand this game,” he added.
— BERNAMA
