The PAS progressive movement Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) has welcomed the call by PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim and DAP’s Lim Kit Siang to build a new opposition pact to fight for the people as the country is facing a hard time.

GHB chief Mohamad Sabu said both the calls by the two leaders from PKR and DAP were in line with the New Hope movement's vision to reignite political parties and NGOs following the demise of Pakatan Rakyat.

"As what GHB said at our launch on July 13, the position of our country today is very worrying. The horrendous financial scandals and rising goods prices because of the goods and services tax, along with the ringgit crisis, have been pushing and engulfing people's lives.

"So, for GHB, the formation of a new coalition, as mentioned (by Anwar and Lim), is very critical at this moment to lead the people and the youth on a mission to 'save Malaysia' from the crippling disasters brought by the failure of the Umno-BN administration," Mohamad, who is widely known as Mat Sabu ( photo ), said in a statement today.

Yesterday, Anwar announced the formation of a " strengthened coalition ", which could include GHB and NGOs such as Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih), Malaysia Muslim Youth Movement (Abim), and Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia (Ikram).

Also yesterday, Lim revealed that DAP was involved in talks to forming a new coalition and confirmed that PAS was excluded from the talks.

DAP had unilaterally announced the demise of Pakatan Rakyat after delegates at the 61st muktamar or general assembly of PAS held in early June, accepted without debate a motion proposed by the Dewan Ulama to cut ties with DAP.

The syura council of PAS later decided to sever ties with DAP but the party continued to work with PKR.