Saturday April 5, 2008
Karpal: No one party is boss
PETALING JAYA: There is no question of any of the three political parties being the backbone of the proposed Pakatan Rakyat, DAP chairman Karpal Singh said.
He said it had already been made clear that no one party would have greater standing, as the three component parties were equal in the alliance.
“Out of 82 parliamentary seats, PAS won 23 seats, with DAP securing 28 seats and PKR 31.
“PAS won the lowest number of seats, so how can it claim to be the backbone of Pakatan Rakyat?” he asked when contacted yesterday.
He was commenting on an Utusan Malaysia article yesterday where Kelantan PAS Youth chief Mohamad Zaki Ibrahim agreed with Kelantan’s deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yaakub that PAS ought to be the backbone of Pakatan Rakyat to ensure the hopes of setting up an Islamic country were realised.
This was backed yesterday by the Kedah and Terengganu PAS Youth movements, Bernama reported from Alor Star yesterday.
National PAS Youth vice head Azman Shapawi Abdul Rani, who also heads Terengganu Youth said PAS should be the backbone as the party had been in existence much longer than PKR and DAP and most Malaysians were Muslims.
Karpal Singh added that there was also no question of PAS insisting on an Islamic state, as in reality the country was a secular state as was confirmed by the Supreme Court in a 1988 decision.
PKR information chief Tian Chua said the three parties believed in the power-sharing concept, and therefore it was necessary to work together and treat each other equally.
“We need each other, we cannot fall easily due to provocation. We must be together to ensure unity,” he said.
Meanwhile, Karpal also joined calls for former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to be prosecuted for alleged interference in the administration of justice.
Gerak, an anti-corruption non-governmental organisation, and former United Nations special rapporteur Datuk Param Cumarasamy had called for Mahathir to be probed on the matter.
“In the trial of PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, former ACA director-general Datuk Shafee Yahya had testified in High Court in June 2000 that Dr Mahathir had ordered him to close a file.
If the allegations by Shafee were true, the former Prime Minister should not be above the law, Karpal said.
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