Sarawak DAP has asked the state PKR to decide whether to cooperate with the secular party or PAS, as relationships between DAP and the Islamist party deteriorate further ahead of next year’s state polls.
Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the ball was in PKR's court, after Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian reportedly said that neither party was on talking terms and that they could not come to an agreement about seat allocations for the state elections.
"PKR is still cooperating with PAS, so it will be awkward for us to cooperate with anyone who still has ties with PAS," Chong said in a press conference at the DAP headquarters in Kuala Lumpur today.
Sarawak DAP was the first to cut ties with PAS, announcing their decision in March, months before the PAS muktamar and DAP national leadership declared "As far as we are concerned, Pakatan Rakyat has been dead in Sarawak since March," Chong said.
"Our condition is simple. We will cooperate with PKR as long as they do not cooperate with PAS."
He said that PAS's ideology had "no place" in Sarawak and that PKR had to quickly make their choice.
"We urge them (PKR) to have a clear vision and to make a wise decision," he said.
The East Malaysian DAP arms were quick to cut ties with PAS in their respective states when it became clear that the Islamist party was pursuing its hudud ambitions without the support of Pakatan Rakyat.
But the national DAP maintained ties until the muktamar, when PAS's conservative faction swept almost all the top posts and passed a resolution to cut ties with DAP without debate.
This led to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng declaring the coalition dead.
DAP holds 12 seats in the 70-seat Sarawak state assembly. PKR has three, and PAS has none.
The three parties went into the last state elections in 2011 as a coalition, mirroring the national federal opposition coalition. –TMI
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