Selangor PAS deputy commissioner Khalid Samad today criticised the party leadership’s decision to field a candidate in the Kota Damansara state seat in Selangor, which had caused PAS and PKR into a five-cornered fight with Umno and two Independents for the seat, which was ultimately won by Umno.

“The reality is, the decision of the PAS member in Kota Damansara to contest after PKR had fielded Dr Nasir Hashim as their candidate, nothing good came out of it except to satisfy those who wanted to contest so badly,” the re-elected Shah Alam MP wrote on his blog today.

“It (the decision) is a mistake and will be admitted by all who treat it objectively, separated from any personal perspective,” he said.

azlan Umno’s Halimaton Saadiah won the contest in Kota Damansara with a 1,527 vote majority against Nasir, the PSM leader who contested under a PKR ticket and was also the incumbent assemblyperson there.

But the presence of PAS’ Ridzuan Ismail, who refused to obey party instructions to drop his campaign after nomination day, attracted 7,312 votes to the PAS camp - votes which could have won Pakatan the state seat if they had not clashed with each other.

Khalid said that he was willing to take the risks that came along with his decision to criticise the Kota Damansara debacle.

“If no one is willing to tell the leadership that they were wrong, then let me do it alone. I did it alone when I was criticising Hasan Ali as well,” said Khalid, normally seen as a moderate from PAS.

“Real love for the leaders is when you correct them when they are wrong,” he added.

“When a mistake is acknowledged and rejected, it doesn’t meant we are rejecting the people who made the mistake. Strategic decisions are important deliberations. And leaders have the right to make such decisions. But, we must know such decisions can be wrong or right. When it is wrong, it cannot be defended,” Khalid added further.

Khalid was one of the few who actually supported the usage of the world ‘Allah’ in Bible translations into Malay when the issue shot to national prominence in 2009.

His outspokenness also resulted in him being suspended from party posts for six months for crossing swords with Hasan, who was later sacked from PAS and formed his own grouping.