Keadilan to pitch in for PAS, BA in Kedah by-elections

comments     Susan Loone     Published     Updated

Keadilan will assist PAS garner support from non-Muslims in the coming Anak Bukit and Pendang by-elections to ensure victory for the opposition, said the party's top leadership today.

The party's supreme council member Dr Lee Boon Chye said the decision was made because PAS or the opposition's loss would have a negative impact on Barisan Alternatif and the reformasi movement in the coming general election.

Lee said the people are in dire need of a stronger opposition and the focus of the election campaign would be to deny ruling Barisan Nasional coalition its two-third majority in the Kedah state assembly.

On non-Muslims' concerns over the Islamic state or hudud law issue, Lee said the matter would be dealt with if Umno raised the issue in its election campaign.

Umno's stand on the issue is unclear as Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has declared that Malaysia is an Islamic state, which would entail acceptance of hudud laws.

"If Umno raises the issue then we will talk. Or else, we base our stand on the Federal Constitution that non-Muslims and women's rights are to be respected," Lee told malaysiakini .

"We are going to ask for more dialogues between PAS and various groups on the issue but we understand it is very difficult for Muslims to reject the Islamic state or hudud law," he added.

Precious seats

The Pendang and Anak Bukit by-elections were called following the death of its representative, PAS president Fadzil Noor on June 23.

Fadzil defeated Umno's Othman Abdul in 1999 with a 2,939-vote majority, polling 22,413 against the latter's 19,474. Othman was a four-term MP before he lost Pendang to Fadzil.

Based on the electoral rolls certified by the Election Commission in December last year, Anak Bukit has 19,890 voters and Pendang 54,471 voters.

With BN winning 18 of the 22 polling stations in Sungai Tiang and losing 17 of the 21 in Bukit Raya in the last general election, a close contest is in store between Umno and PAS in the two seats.

The Anak Bukit state seat is particularly important to the BN as the ruling coalition lost its two-third majority in the Kedah state legislative assembly when Keadilan Youth deputy chief Saifuddin Nasution Ismail won the state seat of Lunas in a by-election in 2000.

The Pendang parliamentary seat is seen as 'precious' to PAS as the party boasts the largest number of members nationwide about 10,000 in this district .

No support from DAP

Meanwhile, DAP deputy chairperson Karpal Singh said it is "incongruous and impossible" for the DAP to extend any support to PAS in the by-elections due to the latter's insistence on hudud laws being introduced despite outcries from various organisations.

Karpal said Keadilan and PRM the two other component parties in the BA should not ignore their supporters' objection by associating themselves with PAS in the face of the party's public insistence on the hudud law.

He urged the two, being multiracial parties, to seriously consider joining the DAP in a concerted multiracial and multireligious opposition front to take on Barisan Nasional in the coming general election which must be held by 2004.

"BN is poised to win by a landslide with (Prime Minister) Dr Mahathir making it his swan song in the campaign leading up to the general election, that the legacy he has placed in the hands of his deputy should be perpetuated and enhanced," he said in a press statement which is a departure from his previous stand on DAP-PAS collaboration.

In May, the veteran politician said the differences between DAP and PAS over the latter's ambition to set up an Islamic state should not hamper the cooperation between opposition parties.

This, he added, includes addressing the government's failure in upholding human rights and its inability to eradicate poverty.

It is believed that Karpal's statement then was linked to a talk held in Kuala Lumpur on the Palestine crisis, attended by Mahathir and his opposition counterpart the late Fadzil.

The event, organised by the Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement (Abim), fuelled talk of a possible cooperation between Umno and PAS on matters related to Islam.



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