PAS Youth today challenged the Barisan Nasional (BN) government to dissolve Parliament and the state assemblies it controls before pressuring the opposition party to do so in Kelantan.

"PAS won Kelantan in a dignified manner but BN won the general election in an ignominious, dirty and disreputable way," said its chief Salahuddin Ayub in a press statement.

He also lashed out at BN leaders for pressuring the opposition party to dissolve the Kelantan state assembly and accusing its leaders of being at odds with each other.

He claimed that since the ruling front had failed to wrest the state in the last election, it was now resorting to undemocratic channels .

"This is not the first time BN has done this. It 'robbed' Terengganu from PAS in 1961 and attempted to do the same in Kelantan in 1967 but failed.

"BN only succeeded in seizing Kelantan from PAS in 1978 after they sponsored instability in the state and invoked the Emergency laws. Now they are trying to do the same," he said.

Statement manipulated

Salahuddin said PAS Youth also viewed seriously the attempts by the media to mount pressure on the Kelantan government.

He claimed the media tried to manipulate the statement by PAS Kelantan information chief Nik Mohd Amar Abdullah that the opposition party would dissolve the state assembly if it is continued to be pressured by BN.

"The Youth wing sees this as a political gimmick which does not mean that the state assembly will be dissolved and the media should not play up the issue to pressure the Kelantan government," he added.

He claimed that since BN had resorted to manipulation and money politics in the March 21 general election, then it is "only logical that if BN is an honourable party, it would dissolve the government".

PAS managed to cling on to Kelantan after winning 24 of the 45 state seats in the just concluded election. However, the party lost neighbouring Terengganu.

Preserve BA

In another development, Salahuddin called on all Barisan Alternatif (BA) leaders to strengthen ties between the two component parties - Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) and PAS.

He was responding to the statements by several Keadilan leaders that the alliance was not beneficial to their party.

He said although PAS Youth concedes that cooperation in the alliance was not at its desired level, this does not mean that ties have to be severed.

"It is wrong to blame BA for Keadilan's waning influence in last month's election because this was due to BN's fraudulent practices," he added.

On the same note, he said BA leaders should not state their negative views about the alliance in the media but rather via the respective parties' channels.

Salahuddin said there is not one concrete reason as to why the alliance - formed prior to the 1999 election - should be dissolved.

"Trivial issues should not be raised and both the parties must learn form the failure of previous opposition alliances which has allowed the BN to rule uninterrupted," he added.

He said the two parties must work hard in crating a formidable alliance and convince the people that BA can be a viable alternative.