SARAWAK Pakatan Harapan leaders are asking the mainly non-Malay, non-Muslim parties in the state Barisan Nasional coalition about their view on Umno’s attempts to court PAS.

The question came after a supreme council member of the state BN’s lead party, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), said he welcomed the alliance if it made BN stronger in the 14th general election.

Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, who is also state tourism, arts, culture, youth and sports minister, said he supported the proposed Umno-PAS electoral alliance if it united Malaysians and strengthened the ruling coalition.

State PKR chief Baru Bian said after being mocked and condemned by BN lawmakers in the legislative assembly in the past for their association with PAS, “I wonder how the other BN parties view Umno’s attempts to court the Islamist party”.

“What intrigues me the most is how the other BN component parties in Sarawak view this development in national politics,” he said, referring to Parti Rakyat Sarawak, the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and the Progressive Democratic Party.

He said despite DAP and PKR’s staunch and vocal opposition to PAS’ hudud agenda when they were coalition partners, they were still mocked and condemned.

PAS’ hudud agenda eventually led to their expulsion from the coalition in Sarawak and the demise of the old Pakatan Rakyat opposition pact.

“It appears now that the shoe is on the other foot,” said Bian.

With PBB, which holds more than half the seats in the state assembly, supporting the Umno move, the Ba Kelalan assemblyman asked if the other state BN parties would also be as equally welcoming of the impending “marriage”.

“What is your stance on PAS’ hudud agenda? Were you alarmed to read the remark by Umno information chief Annuar Musa that Umno and PAS have ‘the same DNA’ and goal, which is to champion Islam and Malays?”

He said even when PAS was in Pakatan Rakyat, DAP and PKR were vehemently against its attempts to turn Malaysia into an Islamic country, via the tabling of the RUU355 hudud bill.

“We do not champion any race or religion. Instead, we uphold fairness and justice, and the rights of all citizens in this secular country, as guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.

“Will the other Dayak-based BN parties take the same approach as ours, or do they now find the PAS hudud agenda acceptable?”

Sarawak PH chairman Chong Chieng Jen had said the state DAP, which he also chairs, saw the alliance, if it materialised, as “the worst combination that anyone can imagine”.

“It’s a coalition of extreme racism and extreme religious bigotry.”

The Bandar Kuching MP said one Umno-led government was bad enough, and an Umno-PAS alliance would be “even worse”.

It would be “beyond imagination”, he said today.

Chong took a pot shot at SUPP, asking why it remained quiet on the latest political development when it had been vocal against PAS in the past.

He said the silence only showed that SUPP and the other state BN parties would go with whatever decisions and policies adopted by Umno. – October 13, 2017.