PAS’ latest political stunt about supporting Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad showed that it is a self-contradicting party that wants to have it both ways, said senior Pakatan Harapan leader Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

Calling it “wiper” (windscreen wiper) politics, Saifuddin also rubbished PAS claims that there is a plot to remove Dr Mahathir as PH chairman.

PAS thinks it can have it both ways, Saifuddin said.

“It wants to work with the opposition Barisan Nasional, which is trying to topple the ruling Pakatan Harapan government, and it also wants to support Dr Mahathir, who is the head of that government,” Saifuddin told The Malaysian Insight.

“We find this strange. PAS wants to work with Umno but at the same time, it supports Dr Mahathir. PAS calls this type of politics ‘matang dan sejahtera’,” said the PKR secretary-general of the Islamist party’s newest motto to describe its politics of “maturity and harmony”.

“But we call it wiper politics,” Saifuddin said, the forearm waving up and down like a vehicle’s windscreen wiper.

Saifuddin, who is also domestic trade and consumer affairs minister, said this shows that PAS wants to benefit from both sides.

After PAS showed up to support the BN candidate in the Semenyih by-election last Saturday, Dr Mahathir said the Islamist party had pledged to support him in a meeting two days earlier and that it will not support Umno in Semenyih.

On Monday, PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan admitted that his party made such a commitment but said the pledge is to support Dr Mahathir in case there is a no-confidence motion in Parliament.

PAS – at loggerheads with Dr Mahathir and PH in past and which said the coalition won’t last one term – said it backs Dr Mahathir in the name of “maintaining Malay-Muslim power” as it claimed there is an internal PH plot to oust the prime minister.

Takiyuddin said the support for Dr Mahathir does not extend to the Semenyih by-election where PAS is campaigning with BN to wrest the Selangor state seat from PH.

He added that the PAS-Dr Mahathir meeting was initiated because PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang got wind that such a plot was brewing.

Saifuddin said there is no such thing as a conspiracy to remove Dr Mahathir, adding that the latter’s position as prime minister was a consensus between all four PH parties in January 2018, four months before the historic 14th general election.

“Pakatan Harapan meets once every three weeks. The last meeting was before Chinese New Year and the atmosphere was very conducive. We talked about government and party policies.”

Despite the increased use of racial and religious rhetoric by Umno and PAS, Saifuddin is confident that Malaysians are wise enough to see through such political incitement.

This is even after both PAS and Umno notched up their racism to win the Cameron Highlands by-election last month. Both parties are also using the same messages in an attempt to win Semenyih, a state seat where Malays make up 68% of the electorate.

“Umno has played racial politics all this while, but it did not stop us from winning. What is important is that we in PH govern responsibly.” – February 20, 2019.