MCA: PAS may dance with Umno if Anwar jailed
Alyaa AzharPublished: Jan 27, 2015 7:37 AM | Updated: Jan 27, 2015 12:11 PM
Should Anwar Ibrahim be incarcerated, the Malaysian political landscape may witness a shift in political alignments.
Should Anwar Ibrahim be incarcerated, the Malaysian political landscape may witness a shift in political alignments.
Gazing into his crystal ball, MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon predicted that ties between PAS and its Pakatan Rakyat allies will be further strained in the absence of the opposition leader.
"PAS may break from Pakatan and we may get Umno and PAS to form another coalition in Kelantan," he said.
He said this when quizzed on the possibility of an Umno-PAS unity government at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli)-organised conference today.
"It has happened before (the unity government) and it may happen again.
"Why not? Politics is dynamic, but the hindrance now is that PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat is against it (unity government).
"But if Anwar is jailed, Pakatan will lose one of its key people who bring the three different political ideology parties together," Chong (left) said, adding that it would reshape Pakatan.
On Feb 10, the Federal Court would deliver its verdict on Anwar's final appeal against his sodomy conviction and five-year jail sentence.
Meanwhile, DAP's Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming admitted that relations between PAS and DAP have not been good, and if it were not for the floods in the East Coast, the situation between the two parties might have been worse.
The reason for this is because the coalition did not have one dominant party.
"However, this is healthy for democracy as we do not want only one party to set the agenda.
"We expect for such problems to continue and we do not expect PAS and DAP to resolve the problems until the PAS party elections in June," he noted.
Nevertheless, Ong said that he will try his "level best" to ensure that Pakatan survives until the next general election, although much remains to be seen.
He added that his party could do much on its own, together with like-minded people in PAS and PKR, to make them "less feared".
This would translate into larger support, as together with PAS and PKR, they can win more seats in the upcoming Sarawak elections, he said.
PKR Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (right), on the other hand, remained optimistic over Pakatan's future.
"This is because of the number of people within PAS who still want the coalition to continue to survive," he noted.
PAS and DAP's ongoing spat is an open secret, with both parties continuously at loggerheads over the hudud issue and the rift between them having widened more over the Selangor menteri besar crisis.
Gazing into his crystal ball, MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon predicted that ties between PAS and its Pakatan Rakyat allies will be further strained in the absence of the opposition leader.
"PAS may break from Pakatan and we may get Umno and PAS to form another coalition in Kelantan," he said.
He said this when quizzed on the possibility of an Umno-PAS unity government at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli)-organised conference today.
"It has happened before (the unity government) and it may happen again."Why not? Politics is dynamic, but the hindrance now is that PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat is against it (unity government).
"But if Anwar is jailed, Pakatan will lose one of its key people who bring the three different political ideology parties together," Chong (left) said, adding that it would reshape Pakatan.
On Feb 10, the Federal Court would deliver its verdict on Anwar's final appeal against his sodomy conviction and five-year jail sentence.
Meanwhile, DAP's Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming admitted that relations between PAS and DAP have not been good, and if it were not for the floods in the East Coast, the situation between the two parties might have been worse.
The reason for this is because the coalition did not have one dominant party.
"However, this is healthy for democracy as we do not want only one party to set the agenda.
"We expect for such problems to continue and we do not expect PAS and DAP to resolve the problems until the PAS party elections in June," he noted.
Nevertheless, Ong said that he will try his "level best" to ensure that Pakatan survives until the next general election, although much remains to be seen.
He added that his party could do much on its own, together with like-minded people in PAS and PKR, to make them "less feared".This would translate into larger support, as together with PAS and PKR, they can win more seats in the upcoming Sarawak elections, he said.
PKR Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (right), on the other hand, remained optimistic over Pakatan's future.
"This is because of the number of people within PAS who still want the coalition to continue to survive," he noted.
PAS and DAP's ongoing spat is an open secret, with both parties continuously at loggerheads over the hudud issue and the rift between them having widened more over the Selangor menteri besar crisis.
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