PAS cannot have it both ways. It cannot go on a rampage against PKR, threaten this and that, announce it is severing ties with the party, and then insist on holding on to its positions on the Selangor executive council.

“It is better if they don’t wait any more. The respectful thing PAS members can do is to relinquish all posts in the state government once the decision to sever ties is finalised,” PKR secretary-general Saifudin Nasution said in a statement today. 

He was referring to the party’s motion to cut ties with PKR that had been accepted without debate at the Dewan Ulama assembly yesterday.

Saifuddin said he expected the motion to be endorsed by the party leadership at the PAS muktamar this weekend.

“What is the logic of severing ties with DAP, Amanah and now PKR – but at the same time they want to continue to co-govern the state?”

The logic is lost on PAS Youth chief Mohd Khalil Abdul Hadi. 

He said the three PAS excos in the Selangor state government need not resign should PAS split with PKR.

In the defiant manner that has come to reflect the tone of the PAS delegates at the assembly, Khalil said: “PKR did not choose the PAS excos in Selangor. And PKR has fewer seats than PAS.

“PAS excos are not appointed by PKR and DAP so they have to continue their duties to the people.”

It is all very laudable to wish to serve the people but PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s son has forgetten a key point: the people of Selangor voted for Pakatan Rakyat in GE13. They didn’t vote for PAS.

Until PAS came together with PKR and DAP in 2008, the party was an also-ran in Selangor. Sure, it contested every election but its performance against Barisan Nasional was predictably dismal.

Sure, it snared a chunk of the Malay vote at every election, but that chunk wasn’t big enough to even earn the party bragging rights.

It was only after it contested under the Pakatan Rakyat banner in 2008 that its candidates tasted victory in Selangor, thanks largely to the overwhelming support of non-Malays, who had voted for PAS because it was then led by the charismatic Nik Aziz Nik Mat and because it was on the same platform as PKR and DAP.

It is PAS’ right to hammer PKR and demand an end to an affiliation that started when Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from ‎Umno and the government in September 1998. After all, there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics.

But what PAS cannot do is insist on cutting ties with PKR and then stubbornly cling to political positions it didn’t earn on its own merit.

Even without PAS, Azmin Ali and his comrades from PKR, DAP and Amanah would still be able to govern Selangor with a simple majority of 29 out of 56 seats in the state assembly. ‎– April 28, 2017.