AMANAH is willing to accept Selangor PAS assemblymen into the party, said its deputy president, Salahuddin Ayub.

“Since the day we formed Amanah, we have been willing to open our doors to anyone, not just PAS assemblyman in Selangor but the whole country,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

He was responding to a report in The Star stating that five PAS assemblymen would defect to Amanah as soon as Parliament dissolves. 

The report said that the assemblymen were interested in defending their constituencies in the next general election and that they were interested in joining PH. 

Salahuddin also said that Amanah was willing to negotiate the PAS assemblymen’s intention to join the party. 

“We are always prepared to negotiatiate with anyone on the terms of offer.”

It is understood that Amanah’s political bureau had a special meeting to discuss the terms offered to the PAS representatives. 

“Each assemblymen and constituency has a different scenario. We can offer some of the PAS up as candidates but it is different for some others,” a source told The Malaysian Insight. 

Prior to this, PAS assemblymen said that Amanah was not willing to open its doors to them ahead of the general election. 

This was based on the negative perception the Amanah grassroots had following rumours that the Islamist party representatives were willing to defect. 

A study by Selangor’s Institute Darul Ehsan found that PAS was more likely to lose out on Chinese votes since breaking ties with other oppositon parties. 

Political analyst Hisommudin Bakar agreed that many PAS assemblymen were in limbo when it comes to whether they should leave the party or stay.

“The harder question is, how many are them are willing to leave PAS and join Amanah? For the time being, I believe many would not dare leave PAS.” – February 3, 2018.