PKR’s top leadership must make a final decision on political cooperation with PAS and stop leaving the matter open, party vice-president Rafizi Ramli said.

The lack of clarity and festering differences of opinion cannot continue, he said, as it would hurt PKR and the opposition pact Pakatan Harapan in the next general election.

“Differences of opinion among senior PKR leaders on this matter must be settled once and for all. 

“Collaboration must be based on principles, and not just on a strategy of collaborating with anyone for the sake of winning,” Rafizi said in a statement.

Recent developments have turned up the heat on the PKR-PAS relationship.

Both parties parted ways in April, with PKR remaining in PH and PAS seeking to form another opposition pact, Gagasan Sejahtera, while courting the ruling Umno at the same time.

Selangor PAS recently announced that it would contest 42 seats in the state in a bid for dominance in the 56-seat legislative assembly, while  a Straits Times report said PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has been in close contact with Prime Minister Najib Razak to discuss electoral cooperation. PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and deputy president Azmin Ali have also been recently photographed visiting Hadi, who is recovering from heart surgery.

Earlier this week, another PKR vice-president, William Leong, resigned from the party’s political bureau to protest the leadership’s overtures to PAS.

While PKR has been trying to avoid three-cornered fights in the coming polls by cooperating with PAS, Rafizi said he believed PKR was strong enough to win as simulations by the Invoke Centre for Policy Initiatives had shown that voters would still support PKR and PH because they no longer wanted a Barisan Nasional government.

“I am the only PKR vice-president who has openly said that we must be ready to face three-cornered fights with PAS. I respect the attempt of fellow leaders to seek cooperation with PAS, even though I have never been convinced that there is proof to show that three-cornered fights will cause PKR to lose,” he said.

Rafizi said he and other PKR leaders would push the party leadership to settle the party’s stand on cooperation with PAS once and for all.

“(If not,) the differences of opinion in the senior leadership will continue, and there will be no point of agreement.”

He added that such a decision could only be final after taking into account the views of the PKR grassroots, and should not be decided by the senior leadership alone. – August 25, 2017.