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DAP: PAS' antics will cost Pakatan dearly
Published:  Apr 28, 2015 6:54 PM
Updated: Apr 29, 2015 6:47 AM

PAS' decision to turn its back on the Pakatan Rakyat common policy framework will undo Pakatan's breakthroughs in BN stronghold Johor in the last general election, DAP's Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang said.

The veteran DAP leader said voters he met in five constituencies say they will abandon Pakatan if PAS continues to push for the hudud.

The five state constituencies are Skudai , Nusajaya , Pengakalan Rinting , Johor Jaya and Stulang.

DAP won all these seats but Nusajaya in the 13th general election.

Skudai was the only seat won with a comfortable margin of 36 percent of total votes, while others were won with less than ten percent of total votes.

Nusajaya was contested by PAS vice president Salahuddin Ayub, who lost the seat to BN by about four percent of votes.

Pakatan's make it or break it push in Johor in the 13th general election saw it wrest five parliamentary seats and 18 state seats in BN's birth state.

Lim (right) , who himself risked his neck by taking on the former Johor Menteri Besar in Gelang Patah, said the Johor experience showed Pakatan can take Putrajaya in GE14.

"However, that dream is in danger of slipping away. There is no way that Pakatan can dream of gaining more seats in Johor, what more winning the state government, if we go on the current trajectory.

"(Not) with PAS reneging on the Pakatan common policy framework and unilaterally pushing for hudud implementation in the country," he said.

'Non-Malay voters feel betrayed'

He said non-Malay voters he met in Johor are "feeling betrayed" by PAS' hudud push, especially after PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang submitted a Private Member's Bill to amend a federal law to allow the Kelantan enactment on hudud to be implemented.

"Hadi is putting in danger the four state seats which PAS currently holds, all of which have in excess of 40 percent of non-Malay voters.

"There are many more pressing issues in  the country and in Johor state which need urgent attention rather than the distractions of hudud,” he said.

He said Pakatan cannot win Putrajaya without PAS, and PAS should know that they are in a prime position to take advantage of the change of tide in Johor.

PAS won an historic four state seats in GE13 and although it did not win any parliamentary seats, came close by taking more than 40 percent of votes in Ayer Hitam, Simpang Renggam and Pulai, he said.

"In the parliament seat of Pulai , PAS vice president (Salahuddin) won 48 percent of the popular vote and was 3226 votes away from defeating a seemingly undefeatable incumbent in Nur Jazlan (above) , the son of former Minister of Information, Mohamed Rahmat."

Ayer Hitam is held by Minister in Prime Minister's Department Wee Ka Siong and Simpang Renggam by Gerakan secretary-general Liang Teck Meng.

It also won more than 40 percent of votes in the remaining 14 state seats it contested in Johor.

"If PAS can capture just half of these 14 seats, Pakatan can even dream of winning the state government of Johor in the next general elections," he said.

And with DAP sowing the seeds of change in BN's other strongholds Sabah and Sarawak, through the Impian Sabah and Impian Sarawak programmes, the a regime change is possible, he said.

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