PAS vice-president Mustafa Ali today blamed loose working relations within opposition front Barisan Alternatif (BA) as one of the reasons that contributed to the poor performance of the coalition in the 11 th general election.

"BA, despite being an opposition coalition, is not a real choice (for the people) ... there is no real cohesion," he said at a press conference today in Kuala Lumpur.

He suggested that Malaysians aspire to a two-party system to provide a platform for checks and balances.

"If they don't like BN, they can then just choose the other party," the PAS leader said.

He added that his statement was purely his "personal opinion and observation" and not the party's official stand. Mustafa himself failed to retain his Dungun parliamentary seat in the election.

BA, formed in 1999 initially comprised of PAS, Keadilan, Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) and DAP. DAP left the coalition in 2001 over disagreement with PAS' insistence of establishing an Islamic state while Keadilan merged with PRM last August.

Poor performance

In the March 21 elections, PAS won just seven parliamentary and 35 state seats - compared to 27 parliamentary and 98 state seats in the last polls. The party conceded Terengganu to the BN and only retained control of Kelantan by a slight margin.

Keadilan retained the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat, held by its president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. In the 1999 elections, the party had won five parliamentary and five state seats.

Keadilan Youth information chief Latheefa Koya has since been quoted as saying that the party should review its relation with PAS - including severing ties - citing the poor election results as a reason.

However, Keadilan Youth chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor said it was unlikely this would be done.