Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali today said that a sovereign state has the right to speak up against oppression happening in another country.

Citing the persecution of Muslims in Southern Thailand and Palestine, Mohamed Azmin said Malaysia has an obligation to speak up.

"That (speaking up) is a normal matter and on a very clear principle so that persecution does not occur in any country.

"That is the role of a sovereign and independent state," Azmin told reporters when met at the launch of Shah Alam Car Free Day this morning.

The PKR deputy president said this when asked for comments on PAS' president Abdul Hadi Awang's reported remarks against parties allegedly seeking intervention from the United States to influence Malaysian politics.

Abdul Hadi had during a speech in Rusila, Terengganu on Tuesday, stressed that PAS has a right to negotiate with any parties including Umno on matters related to Islam as there are other parties who have been negotiating with foreign powers including the US.

"We have not reached that level yet, to ask a foreign country to interfere in our country. We cannot negotiate with Umno, but it is okay for them to negotiate with America.

"It is okay if (they) want to invite the US to meddle in our country's affairs. What is this?" he reportedly asked.

Close ranks

Abdul Hadi had also lambasted the DAP and described its former ally as being the "child of PAP's s**t" - in reference to Singapore's People's Action Party.

Asked for to comment on Abdul Hadi's view on DAP, Azmin urged opposition parties to close ranks.

"Instead we (opposition parties) should unite (and focus) our strength to help the people and save the country," he said.

Abdul Hadi in his speech did not name anyone or cited a particular issue.

PAS news organ Harakahdaily in a commentary by Universiti Utara Malaysia's Institut Kajian Politik Malaysia director Kamarul Zaman Yusoff, however, yesterday alleged that had DAP had attempted to lobby the US in helping secure PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's freedom as an example that it had invited foreign intervention in Malaysia.

Kamarul Zaman, in his commentary, cited an April 11 report in PKR's organ Suara Keadilan that quoted DAP's Ronnie Liu who said he had met with US political counselor Tressa Finerty to discuss Anwar's treatment by Putrajaya.

The Suara Keadilan report was based on Otai Reformis's visit to the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur on April 6.

The Otai Reformis movement, of which Liu is a member, had submitted a memorandum to urge the US to keep up the pressure for Anwar's release as well as to help him seek medical attention abroad.