PAS leader 'biadab' for alleging M'sia hesitant to support Palestine: PM

PARLIAMENT | Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim this morning lashed out at the PAS ulama chief for alleging that Putrajaya is being hesitant in its stand on the Palestinian cause.

Calling Ahmad Yahaya “biadab” (insolent), Anwar stressed that the government had always been unequivocal in supporting Palestine.

This, he said, was contrary to Ahmad’s claim in an article published by PAS mouthpiece Harakah Daily yesterday. The article was accompanied by a photo of Anwar with an image of the Israeli flag placed behind him.

“Every day, we work on this case... We asked the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) to hold a meeting, and (asked them to) involve China, Russia, Brazil, Ireland, and Bolivia.

“We discussed with Japan Prime Minister (Fumio) Kishida, with Netherlands Prime Minister (Mark) Rutte. And this week, we have another meeting with the Chinese vice-president.

“But (Ahmad) could simply make such a rude and insolent statement,” Anwar said during the Prime Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat.

In the Harakah article, Ahmad (Perikatan Nasional-Pokok Sena) alleged that the government was pressured to act on the Palestine issue by certain quarters and parties within the government coalition.

The PAS leader also claimed that the government has started to change its tone in regard to Palestine freedom fighters to follow the narrative set by Israel and the West.

The prime minister said he would not hesitate to take “strong action” against anyone who repeats such accusations in the future.

“Listen carefully to what I am going to say. So that the ulama chief won’t use Harakah to link me to Israel again.

“That was such an insolent statement that is indecent. It was an illegitimate slander (by someone) wearing ‘serban’ (Islamic headgear), and I strongly object to it.

“If anyone repeats this claim in the future, I will take strong action,” Anwar said.

‘Make correction’

During a later part of the session, Ahmad explained to Anwar that his statement published by Harakah was not meant as an allegation.

Instead, the ulama chief claimed he was merely posing a question about the government’s stand on Palestine.

Thus, he would like Anwar to retract his “insolent” remark.

“It was a question, not an allegation. It’s like any other question that Tambun (Anwar) responded to before this.

“So now we are clear about the government’s position, which is the same position that we (the opposition) take in supporting Palestine.

“Therefore, I would like to ask you to retract your remark calling me rude and insolent,” Ahmad told Anwar.

To this, Anwar said he accepted the Pokok Sena MP’s explanation and agreed to move on from the issue.

However, the prime minister explained that he was angry because Harakah placed an Israeli flag behind his photo, which he took as an insult.

“You must understand. You are very angry with Israel, and so am I. When (Harakah) did this to me, even without a caption...

“I think Harakah can make a correction. I’m fine if you want to reprimand me or criticise me, I can accept.

“But don’t do this,” Anwar said.

Malaysiakini learned that Harakah had since changed the photo it used in the online article.

Checks on its online portal show that the main photo no longer uses Anwar and Ahmad’s images.

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