DAP national deputy chairperson Karpal Singh today criticised PAS information chief Azizan Abdul Razak for saying that the Opposition front is aware of PAS' intention to set up an Islamic state should it come to power.

"It is obvious PAS is bent on setting up an Islamic state. The DAP cannot and will not accept this," said Karpal.

"Our opposition to an Islamic state is absolute. If PAS is bent on defying the Federal Constitution which, clearly, provides for a secular state, the DAP cannot afford to be associated with it," he added.

The Star today reported Azizan as saying all component partners in the opposition front are aware of PAS' intention of setting up an Islamic state should it come to power.

He reportedly said the party had never abandoned this objective.

"How can any party deny our belief and yet want to be in the same boat?" he was quoted as saying, adding that PAS had never told DAP it was "abandoning" its quest for an Islamic state.

Karpal said PAS should not flex its muscles after winning two states in the last general elections and increasing its strength in the Dewan Rakyat.

He clarified that DAP decided in the last general elections to team up with PAS and other opposition parties to take on the ruling front Barisan Nasional with the specific aim of denying it a two-third majority.

"It was clearly understood an Islamic state would not be set up if the opposition managed to wrest power at the federal level," said Karpal.

"It was for that reason, it was insisted by the DAP, that the common manifesto of the BA did not include the setting up of an Islamic state," he added.

Karpal said with PAS' insistence in setting up the Islamic state, the DAP has no alternative but to leave the opposition coalition.

Separate ways

DAP secretary-general Kerk Kim Hock supported Karpal's concern and said that it was totally misleading and wrong for Azizan to imply that DAP had joined the BA with the understanding that PAS would set up an Islamic state.

DAP national publicity bureau secretary Gobind Singh Deo said Azizan had twisted facts simply to repair the damage PAS leaders have done in declaring publicly that PAS has always intended to set up an Islamic state.

"It is illogical for anyone to believe that DAP would have agreed to join forces with PAS if its main ideology was to set up an Islamic state as this goes contrary to DAP's quest for a just Malaysia," he said.

"Now that we know PAS' true intentions, both PAS and DAP should go separate ways and leave it to the electorate to point out at the next general elections, whether they accept, or not, the concept of an Islamic state," he added.

On Wednesday, Karpal had threatened that DAP would pull out of the coalition over PAS' Islamic state stand.