PAS is wrong to call for rival party DAP to be banned as such moves will only backfire, said PKR president Anwar Ibrahim today.

He said the Islamist party should not be trapped in an old mindset of wanting to ban things it does not approve of.

“I think PAS is still stuck on its old mindset in calling for the ban. That is old politics.

“If you teach the new government of its power to ban parties, that is dangerous. And, it is dangerous for PAS, too,” the Port Dickson MP said after an event in Bangi this morning.

He was referring PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man’s call for the government to ban DAP for being a threat to national security, citing its alleged Christian agenda, links to terror groups like the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and promotion of communism through a comic book. 

Tuan Ibrahim had said that because police had strong evidence against the DAP leaders arrested over alleged links to the LTTE, that it was not merely a political issue but one of “national security”.

In 2012, Tuan Ibrahim, who was PAS information chief at the time, had urged the National Fatwa Council to issue a fatwa against DAP for its opposition to Islamic rule in the country and hudud law.

He had said the council needed to make a decision promptly to avoid confusion among the people, especially Muslims.

At that time, disputes had surfaced over the proposed implementation of hudud law in Kelantan. – October 26, 2019.