KUALA LUMPUR — PAS vice president Datuk Idris Ahmad has hit back at Amanah president Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu over claims that PAS left the Pakatan Rakyat coalition to form a unity government with Umno.
Describing the accusations as baseless, Idris said PAS would rather lose the 14th General Election (GE14) than be branded as DAP’s “lapdogs”.
“If we (PAS) were desperate to become ministers, menteri besar, and exco members, we would not have left Pakatan Harapan (PH), we would have been DAP’s lapdogs in GE14,” he said during a ceramah in Simpang Jeram yesterday.
“But, we had the attitude to contest solo and separate from DAP.
“We were willing to lose, whatever happened, as long as we do not leave traces of a dark past as lapdogs to DAP,” he added.
The former religious affairs minister was responding to Mohamad’s claims during a ceramah at the same state constituency last night.
Mohamad said that PAS abruptly quit the Pakatan Rakyat coalition in 2015 because the party was scheming to form a “unity government” with Umno – and not over DAP’s persistent rejection of the proposed hudud law.
He said that several PAS leaders, including president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang, started “backstabbing” maneuvers after the 2013 general election.
Meanwhile, Idris also claimed that the PH-BN grassroots does not accept the PH-BN alliance, which will result in the coalition’s inability to obtain sufficient votes.
“I met with Umno division leaders, they said ‘We need 4,000 (votes to win)’. It cannot be guaranteed that Umno (supporters) would even give 400 votes to PH,”
“You (Umno) expected to obtain a lot (of votes) by being friends with DAP, Amanah, and PH. You did not, because the grassroots cannot accept your alliance,” he added. — August 30, 2023