Several mainstream papers took a critical stance on PAS’ decision to back PKR’s bid to nominate Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the new menteri besar for Selangor, branding it a ‘U-turn’, ‘bowing’ and ‘complying’ to its partners.

Broadsheet Utusan Malaysia said that Pakatan Rakyat’s decision to name Wan Azizah as the sole candidate for the MB post was akin to ‘disrespecting’ the decision made by the PAS central committee in the morning to back both Wan Azizah and her PKR deputy Azmin Ali as the new MB.

It said that Pakatan’s decision had ‘instantly rejected’ the decisions that PAS had made in its meeting earlier in the day.

Utusan ran the headline ‘PAS complies with PKR, DAP’ (PAS akur PKR, DAP) and also raised questions about PAS’ ‘inconsistencies’ regarding the menteri besar crisis.

The party’s influential Syura Council had earlier decided that Abdul Khalid Ibrahim should remain as the state’s MB.

Berita Harian meanwhile ran the headline ‘PAS tunduk’ (PAS bowed) and said that the decision by the PAS central committee had ‘defied’ the decision made by the Syura Council.

The Syura Council’s decision was made when Khalid was still a PKR member. He was expelled from the party on Aug 9 for refusing to make way for Wan Azizah, two days after the Syura Council decision.

The New Straits Times branded the decision a ‘U-Turn on Khalid’, and even went on to stay that PAS ‘reneged’ on its support for Khalid to remain as MB.

It also questioned if PAS’ decision to nominate Wan Azizah and Azmin as MB candidates was a ‘betrayal’ against Khalid, who had been able to keep the state government afloat thanks to PAS’ support so far.

However, another mainstream paper, The Star , said that it was Azmin who made the decision to allow Wan Azizah to be the sole nominee for the MB post.

It ran the headline ‘Azmin makes the call, and... it’s Wan Azizah’.

“At the end of the day, it was down to Azmin Ali to decide,” it said.