Kuala Lumpur - The opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) will make a final decision on its working relationship with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) as well as other issues concerning the survival of the opposition alliance next week, said the head of the PAS religious scholars' council.
Dewan Ulama chief, Datuk Mahfodz Mohamed, was quoted as saying by Malay daily Utusan Malaysia that they will make no further comment about the issue until then.
He made the statement amid complaints by some DAP leaders about seemingly contradictory views expressed by PAS officials on the status of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance.
"As we all agreed during the muktamar (party general assembly), PAS Dewan Ulama will follow all the decisions made by the PAS Syura Council, so we will not give any comment till then," Dr Mahfodz said. The Syura Council is the party's highest decision-making body.
Dr Mahfodz also chided DAP for "hastily" declaring that PR was dead. Though PAS passed a motion early this month to sever ties with DAP, he said that PAS has not decided on whether to remain in PR, reported Malay Mail Online.
Meanwhile, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang accused PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang of having single-handedly destroyed PR, despite the latter's insistence that the loose coalition is not dead, The Star newspaper reported yesterday .
Mr Lim blamed Datuk Seri Hadi's decision to violate the two pillars governing the opposition pact - the common policy framework and consensus principle.
On Friday, Mr Hadi insisted that Pakatan was still alive, and said DAP had no right to pronounce that the coalition no longer existed. He said his counterparts in the Chinese-based DAP acted hastily because they did not understand the meaning of a pact.
Mr Lim replied by highlighting the different views expressed by PAS leaders about the status of the alliance.
"As the new PAS leadership seems to be at loggerheads with each other whether the PAS muktamar motion has led to the dissolution of Pakatan Rakyat, I have no interest of intervening in their different interpretations," he said.
Mr Lim was referring to Dr Mahfodz's earlier remarks last week, when he seemed to agree that Pakatan had disbanded. Dr Mahfodz had told reporters that he did not regret the PAS motion to cut ties with DAP, although it had resulted in the dissolution of Pakatan.
Other DAP leaders yesterday complained about the mixed signals from their former opposition partner.
Klang MP Charles Santiago said remarks by PAS election director Mustafa Ali that Pakatan had only "fainted" and was not dead were merely a silat or wayang kulit performance.
A lawmaker from Parti Keadilan Rakyat, the third component party of PR, said the end of the alliance was not unexpected because the situation between DAP and PAS had become untenable.
He told The Star newspaper that he expected progressive members of PAS to break away and form a new party after Ramadan.
