Perak: PAS no-show at palace, Bersatu says it was 'not invited'
- UPDATED 8PM | Added response from political secretary to Perak PAS chief.
Perak PAS lawmakers have "called off" their audience with the Perak sultan in Ipoh today while Perak Bersatu claimed they did not receive an official invitation.
Perak PAS head Razman Zakaria said the party was still undecided on what to tell the state ruler and hence decided to seek a postponement.
"We don't want to look like we are main-main...
- UPDATED 8PM | Added response from political secretary to Perak PAS chief.
Perak PAS lawmakers have "called off" their audience with the Perak sultan in Ipoh today while Perak Bersatu claimed they did not receive an official invitation.
Perak PAS head Razman Zakaria said the party was still undecided on what to tell the state ruler and hence decided to seek a postponement.
"We don't want to look like we are main-main (not serious)," he said.
He said the party will seek an audience with the ruler as soon as a decision has been made by the party's headquarters.
"It all depends on the national leadership," Razman added.
Palace sources told Malaysiakini that PAS and Bersatu leaders were supposed to have been granted an audience at 3pm today.
Pakatan Harapan leaders were seen entering Istana Kinta in Ipoh at around 3.15pm. Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was granted an audience earlier this morning.
In a related development today, Perak Bersatu chief Ahmad Faizal Azumu said his party did not receive any official decree from the palace for an audience.
He also stressed that Bersatu has yet to seek an audience with the Perak ruler over the appointment of a new menteri besar.
About noon today, palace spokesperson Annuar Zaini informed the press that the Perak ruler Sultan Nazrin Shah had granted an audience to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Following this, the ruler had wished to grant audiences to all Bersatu and PAS lawmakers this afternoon.
Faizal was already in Parliament at the time. He is the Tambun MP and Chenderiang assemblyperson.
Last Friday, Faizal was ousted as the menteri besar after failing a confidence vote in the Perak Legislative Assembly.
Currently, it is uncertain if Umno is able to form a new state government with Bersatu and PAS - or if they will explore joining forces with Pakatan Harapan.
PAS was 'played' by Umno
Meanwhile, an aide to Razman in a statement defended Perak PAS leaders for cancelling their audience with the sultan today, saying that it was not an act of 'derhaka' (disrespect) to the ruler.
"Perak PAS was not ready with a decision. So Perak PAS informed (the palace) that the party is not ready yet," said Fairuz Hafiizh Othman, who is Razman's political secretary.
Fairuz also accused that the party was "played" by Umno when the latter called for a confidence vote on Faizal's leadership.
"The motion initiated by Umno was supported by PAS... But unfortunately, Umno was the one that did not support it. Poor PAS, we got played by Umno.
"In the end, when things turned to the worse, PAS was blamed when it tried to be a peacemaker," he said on Facebook.
Report this comment
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.