The future of Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat which comprises DAP, PKR and PAS, will be known in June next year when PAS Malaysia will be having its convention, said Sarawak DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen.

It is expected that there will be a showdown between the ulama and the progressive factions in the party. The party is seriously divided, said Chong.

“If the progressive faction wins control of the party, it means the party is not going to implement hudud and it is not leaning towards Umno. This faction is for justice, fairness, equality and liberty.

“But if the ulama faction wins control of the party, it will certainly implement hudud and will work closely with Umno.

“If this is the scenario, Sarawak DAP will pull out of the state Pakatan,” said Chong, who is the MP for Bandar Kuching and the Kota Sentosa Assemblyperson.

“In the meantime, Sarawak DAP will maintain its stand to dissociate itself from all activities and cooperation with Sarawak PKR and PAS due to their ambiguous stand on hudud.

“That decision was made in Sibu on July 20, 2014. Today, we still maintain that decision unless PAS reverts to the common manifesto of Pakatan,” he said after chairing the state DAP committee meeting.

Strong message

He said that Sarawak DAP is sending a very strong message to Sarawak PKR and PAS that the party is against the implementation of hudud law in Sarawak or even in Malaysia.

According to Chong, the three parties last met few months back to discuss the seat allocation among them. That was before PAS wanted to introduce hudud in Parliament.

During the meeting, PKR wanted to contest in 50 seats, one more than the previous state election, while PAS insisted on contesting 10 seats.

“That would leave us with only 11 seats,” said Chong, pointing out that under these circumstances DAP is waiting for them to come back to the ‘real world’.

The two parties have to be realistic in their claims, he added.

 

In the last state election, DAP won 12 seats out of 15 it contested. PKR won only three seats, while PAS scored zero.

The Sarawak Pakatan was formed in 2010 to consolidate the resources of the three parties in order to bring change to the state government.

“It appears that we are going separate ways in the next state election give the situation that we are in now,” Chong said, pointing out that the party is well prepared for that.