PAS members want party to reject Selangor MB’s post

PAS must reject the Selangor Menteri Besar’s post if it is given to them, said a Perlis grassroots leader as the Islamist party struggles to remedy the bad blood it has created by its handling of the month-old crisis over the post.

Wan Kharizal Wan Khazim said that PAS must hold fast to the principle of integrity which is its calling card, and fulfil its promise to allies in Pakatan Rakyat that the Selangor MB’s post goes to PKR.

“There is a possibility that the post will be given to PAS. But we have already promised that the post goes to PKR.

“So I call on the assembly to come out with a formal stand that PAS will reject the post if it is given to us just as we announced on August 17,” said Wan Kharizal.

Analysts have said that PAS’s handling of the Selangor Menteri Besar crisis has eroded public confidence in the 63-year-old party.

This is after it came out with conflicting decisions on the crisis and who should be nominated as menteri besar to replace Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

Its decisions have especially rattled its allies in PR and have led some leaders to speculate that PAS would leave the coalition because of its stand.

PKR and DAP have backed the former’s president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

While one faction of the PAS leadership endorsed Dr Wan Azizah or her deputy Azmin Ali, another faction nominated three other state lawmakers to the Selangor Sultan.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has not denied that he had nominated a Selangor PAS leader for the post.

There are worries in PR that a Selangor menteri besar from PAS would not be accepted as it goes against the coalition’s understanding that the post should go to PKR.

Yesterday, PAS deputy president Mohammad Sabu stated that a PAS menteri besar in Selangor would be short-lived.

"If DAP and PKR do not agree with the choice for menteri besar it will be a temporary state government," he said.

Another delegate repeated the same call at the party’s assembly today for the party to reject the Selangor Menteri Besar’s post.

“We want an emergency motion tabled that PAS rejects the Menteri Besar post in the spirit of solidarity with our friends in the PR.

“At least we can tell our friends that we reject the post. But if the sultan still chooses one from PAS, what are we supposed to do?” – September 19, 2014.