Hu Pang Chow, a founder member of the PAS Supporters Club who was removed as chairperson in 2013, dismissed talk by his successor that the non-Muslim wing of the Islamic party was ready to contest against the DAP in their strongholds.

N Balasubramaniam, who succeeded Hu as chairperson, was quoted as saying that candidates from the wing he heads were ready to follow instructions from PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang to contest in Chinese majority seats at the next general election (GE14).

“First of all, the wing Balasubramaniam heads is now suffering from defections to Parti Amanah Negara,” said Hu, who is already in PAN’s pro-tem committees at the centre and in the state (Kelantan).

“I won’t claim the wing is finished but it will find it hard to come up with candidates to contest in any seat, leave alone DAP-held ones,” added Hu, who helped set up the PAS Supporters Club in 2004 and oversaw its elevation to a recognised wing of the party in 2011.

“The defections from the wing to PAN are large enough to reduce the wing to almost nothing. Balasubramaniam's talk about its capability to field candidates in the next general election is the talk of a man who has been to contest all this while but has not yet had the chance,” said the retired Chinese school teacher who taught for much his career in schools in Kelantan.

Hu revealed that Balasubramaniam is a former MIC member who had to be restrained once he joined PAS Supporters Club from clamouring for the setting-up of an Indian section to the club.

“I recall Mahfuz Omar ( photo ) once having advised Balasubramaniam not to go on and on in talking about an Indian section to the club because Mahfuz said the club’s composition is not based on race but on ideals of justice and reform,” said Hu.

Mahfuz is the PAS MP for Pokok Sena who had headed the youth wing and has served as vice-president. Though allied to the progressive wing of PAS, he has announced that he is not leaving PAS for the splinter party, PAN, and before that Gerakan Harapan Baru, the NGO that is PAN’s precursor.

Further Hu recalled: “I, too, had to caution Balasubramaniam against beginning his remarks during meetings with ‘We Indians’ by telling him that he was being race-conscious whereas the whole idea of the Supporters Club was to unify the races and not focus on one particular race,” recalled Hu.

Hu could not precisely say what Balasubramaniam's working experience was but “he is from Pahang and was difficult to manage because of his tendency to go to the various states where PAS had Supporters Club and choose Indians to be the chairpersons without vetting his choice with those like me who were in the wing’s central leadership ranks.”

Hu said he was not surprised that Balasubramaniam had expressed backing for Hadi’s intention to field candidates in DAP-held seats, contending he was sceptical that both the party chief and the non-Muslim wing’s head knew what the score was on the ground.