Former PAS central committee member and Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad has asked PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and the new PAS leadership to look in the mirror, before describing DAP as being chauvinist.

PAS is becoming like Umno in labeling DAP thus, as in the past only Umno did that, said Khalid, in speaking to reporters after Anwar Ibrahim’s qazaf appeal at the Kuala Lumpur Syariah Court today.

“Is it correct to label DAP as chauvinist when we see more Malays joining the party?,” he asked, adding that PAS and especially the new leadership should reflect on this.

“You have to look at the party’s constitution before describing it as chauvinist,” said Khalid ( photo ).

It was recently reported that national laureate 80 year-old A Samad Said , former Johor PAS Youth member, Sheikh Omar Ali and rapper, Edry Faizal Yusof , had joined the DAP.

Yesterday, it was reported that Abdul Hadi said that the party would work with anyone except chauvinists in an obvious reference to DAP.

In fact, Khalid added, the new leadership is being chauvinist as the party has now lost its appeal especially to the non-Muslims.

He added that he would rather trust former deputy president Mohamad Sabu's response and assessment on the declining support of non-Malays on PAS, than the likes of Youth chief Nik Abduh Nik Aziz and central committee members, Nasruddin Hassan and Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki.

“Mat Sabu interacts a lot with the non-Malays and can associate with them unlike the three who do not interact with the non-Malays at all. Hence, I would believe Mat Sabu more than the others in his evaluation,” he said.

Khalid said the fallacy in the present leadership's logic is that they think the hatred towards BN is sufficient for them to get support.

However, he added that they did not know that the image of PAS is worse off as it is not only chauvinistic and not open, it had become exclusive and adopted a holier-than-thou attitude.

“Even the PAS supporters club now is feeling the change. My advice to the current leadership is to look at themselves in the mirror before labeling others as chauvinist,” he said.

PAS wants 'kopi susu' but no milk

Earlier, commenting on his blog posting made yesterday, Khalid said that Pakatan Rakyat has expired, is clear as day, and the sooner leaders admit it, the better for everyone.

The Former PAS central committee member said claiming Pakatan is still alive is akin to claiming that kopi susu (coffee with milk), is still kopi susu, even if the milk is missing.

He made the analogy to paint the absurdity of PAS’ claims that it is still with Pakatan, when it no longer wants ties with one of its key components DAP, as indicated in the motion passed during the recent party muktamar.

“Kopi susu is kopi susu as long as it has the combination of coffee, milk and sugar.

“When you take out the milk, it becomes kopi ‘o’. If you take out the sugar, it becomes kopi ‘o’ kosong.

“While they’re all still coffee, they’re not the same - in fact very different from one another,” he said in his wry analogy.

Khalid said there was little point arguing semantics as long as one party has declared the coalition dead and the other has expressed a desire to sever ties with another.

“There is no more obligation among the component parties, because Pakatan Rakyat is no more,” he pointed out.

Bury it and move on

Apart from the motion to sever ties with DAP, which had been the fiercest critic of the PAS ulama faction’s insistence on working with Umno to pass the hudud enactment in Kelantan and seek a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament to put the law into action, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had also declared that PAS would only cooperate with Pakatan on matters of common interest.

However, on Islamic matters such as hudud, Hadi said PAS would go its own way.

The decision has however put PAS members operating in the Penang and Selangor governments in a spot.

Khalid, who is one of the prominent Selangor leaders in the PAS progressive camp that was practically wiped out from the party leadership in the muktamar, said Pakatan’s demise following these developments is crystal clear even if some leaders refuse to answer the question directly.

“For me, the position of Pakatan Rakyat is clear and obvious. Pakatan is no longer in existence. Terms used such as ‘fainted’ or ‘not functioning formally’ and so on are just terms that cloud the reality.

“The earlier they admit the true situation, the easier it is to rectify things and make amends where necessary.

“There is no benefit in saying everything is good and okay, when in truth it’s the opposite,” asserted Khalid.