PETALING JAYA: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) and Umno are in a competition to gain support from PAS, Gerakan National President Datuk Dr Dominic Lau Hoe Chai (pix) said yesterday.
Expressing his concern that this would edge Malaysia into an Islamic country, Lau said the results of the 14th General Election (GE14) last year has thoroughly changed the political landscape in the country where BN lost after ruling Malaysia for 61 years.
After few Members of Parliament exited, Umno has been actively trying to court PAS. With the cooperation of both parties, BN emerged victorious in the Cameron Highlands by-election last month, defeating Pakatan Harapan., he said
“Currently in the Semenyih by-election, being a ruling party, PPBM is also aggressively courting PAS,” Lau said in a statement.
“Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) has announced he signed an agreement stating that PAS will not assist Umno in the upcoming by-election. Although we are still vague of the possible hidden agendas behind this agreement, it will threaten Malaysia’s status as a secular country.”
Lau said PAS from the beginning has never cease their attempt in turning Malaysia into an Islamic country to implement their Hudud agenda.
Recently with Umno and PPBM working tirelessly to court for PAS’s support, this would only boost the bargaining power of PAS, hence Malaysia’s status as a secular nation is, therefore, hanging by a thread, he said.
Lau said Gerakan as an independent multi-racial party insist on defending Malaysia’s secular nation status and will not tolerate the country being ruled by Hudud deriving from an Islamic country.
“Gerakan absolutely respects all religions,” he said. “However in a Malaysia filled with countless race, religion and culture, it will be better ruled by a secular law compared to Hudud.”
He said due to the different ideology of both parties, cooperation with PAS or accepting any support from the Islamic party is an absolute no-no because Gerakan is a principled party unlike the DAP in their power quest was willing to work with PAS, but after strengthening its former ally, DAP then just decided to abscond.
