Let us move on and keep faith with the hopes of Malaysians for change in the 13GE to ensure that although there is no more Pakatan Rakyat, the PR Common Policy Framework of national unity, justice and prosperity of Malaysians must remain achievable goals in 14GE

Yesterday, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang claimed that Pakatan Rakyat is not dead yet and that the coalition still exists.

This is in contrast to the statement to The Malaysian Insider by the Dewan Ulama Chief and Johor PAS Commissioner Datuk Dr. Mahfodz Mohamed who said yesterday that he does not regret the PAS Muktamar motion to cut ties with DAP, even though it led to the dissolution of Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

Mahfodz Mohamed said they were aware of the repercussions when passing the emergency motion during the ulama wing’s congress on June 3, which was subsequently adopted by the 61st PAS Muktamar without debate.

He said: “To me, there is no turning back, there is no U-turn, because all this while we had been patient in the face of everything PKR and DAP did to PAS. We never responded rudely.

“But when we did that during the congress, we knew there would be no U-turn. We had thought it through, and we knew the consequences of our actions.”

As the new PAS leadership seems to be at loggerheads with each other as to whether the PAS Muktamar motion has led to the dissolution of Pakatan Rakyat, I have no interest of intervening in their different interpretations.

But I find it strange that Hadi is claiming that Pakatan Rakyat is not dead when for the past year he had singly destroyed Pakatan Rakyat by violating the PR Common Policy Framework as well as the PR consensus operational principle, the two pillars governing the success of the PR in the 13th General Elections and without which therd could be no PR.

As a result, the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council has not been able to function for the past year, resulting in PR existing only in name but not in fact.

Hadi either refused to attend the PR Leadership Council meeting or vetoed the decision taken by the PR Leadership Council which he did not attend but arrived after consensus was reached by the leadership from the three parties, or even worse, undertakings made by Hadi at the PR Leadership Council but which he subsequently refused to honour!

I do not want to go into details as we want to move on and keep faith with the hopes of Malaysians for change in the 13GE to ensure that although there is no more Pakatan Rakyat, the PR Common Policy Framework of national unity, justice and prosperity of Malaysians remain achievable goals in 14 GE.

Lim Kit Siang DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Gelang Patah