PAS will forever remain a federal opposition party said Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin in a retort to the Islamist party’s recent claim that the seven-month-old Pakatan Harapan government will not serve out its five-year mandate.

“(PAS and Pakatan) were both in the opposition. But God blessed us and we were not the opposition party for long. PAS is jealous of us because when we tried to negotiate with it to get it to join us, it did not want to,” said Muhyiddin who is the PH deputy president.

Muhyiddin said PH now had the advantage of incumbency in the current federal government with which to strengthen the coalition and build up support before going up against  PAS in the next general election.

In such a scenario, it was far more likely for PH to win another term that it is for PAS to defeat the coalition, he added.

PAS vice president Mohd Amar Abdullah had today said the PH government could crumble before completing its first term in office due to what he said was infighting between the coalition’s parties.

Muhyiddin dismissed the idea that the December 8 rally to protest a UN convention against racial discrimination was indicative of PAS’ strength, in that it was able to marshal tens of thousands of its members to the event.

“(The turnout) at ICERD is not a measurement. We have to look at the election results. PAS can say all sorts of things. It is true there was a big turnout at the rally, and even at other rallies, they can get more people than us. But when it comes to the ballot box, they lose.”

PAS, he added, expert at contesting in elections but it had never been able to gain federal power, despite being in the political arena for more than six decades.

“This is because the majority of people reject PAS. The Chinese cannot accept PAS. Also a big chunk of the Malays don’t accept PAS. If they did, PAS would be a huge party.

“(But) It’s important to have checks and balances even if it’s from a small party. So it’s okay, let PAS be an opposition party forever.” – December 24, 2018.