KUALA LUMPUR: The fate of Pakatan Rakyat hinges on the PAS elections next week, which will see warring factions compete for control over the Islamist party, DAP leaders said.

They told The Malaysian Insider that the future of the coalition rested on PAS standing by its decision to respect the common policy framework and remaining committed to Pakatan.

But there is concern now that the PAS annual general meeting or muktamar will see Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and his cleric group announce that the party would break away from DAP, said Kluang member of parliament (MP) Liew Chin Tong.

PAS delegates will vote in new office bearers at the muktamar. In the run-up, there has been an ugly online campaign through social media to discredit the faction as “liberal” and in support of continued collaboration with Pakatan.

“Rumours are going around that [Abdul] Hadi will make a speech in the muktamar to break away from DAP,” he said when met at Parliament lobby on Tuesday.

“DAP is now the punching bag because PAS didn’t succeed in its push for hudud,” he said.

Lew said the onus was on PAS to decide whether it wanted to win Putrajaya with its partners, or settle for being a Kelantan party and possibly even cooperate with Umno. “A lot of bickering is happening because certain sections in the PAS leadership think they only have to secure Kelantan, their base. These people don’t mind working with Umno,” said Lew.

Meanwhile, fears that Pakatan would split up were being felt keenly by both DAP and people on the ground, Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari said.

Zairil said Lim Kit Siang’s warning on Sunday that Pakatan may break apart within two weeks’ time was not just the latter’s personal opinion, but feedback received from the people.

“People are upset that they have given us strong support in the last general election on the premise of a common manifesto, and suddenly we don’t appear to be abiding by what our manifesto was.

“Suddenly you’re trying to do things that weren’t in the manifesto, not mutually agreed among all parties,” said Zairil.

He said DAP was not taking the threat of a break-up lying down. DAP members were constantly engaging with PAS to prevent it from becoming a reality.

“We convey our messages to them in the hopes that they convey it to their grass roots. We are imploring to the PAS members, and we basically hope that common sense prevails.”

But Zairil added that the problem did not lie with Abdul Hadi alone.

“If anyone of us betrays our common policy framework, our common policies, then we will no longer be a pact. It’s not about one specific guy.”

Seremban MP Anthony Loke said it all depended on the outcome and direction taken by the PAS delegates.

“It depends on what they say, whether they give a signal that they want to stay with Pakatan or break away,” he said.

The PAS polls, which will begin on June 4, will see a straight fight between incumbent president Abdul Hadi and former Perak PAS commissioner Ahmad Awang for the party’s top post.

It is the first time the party presidency is being contested and indicative of PAS’s internal strife as it reflects on whether to remain with Pakatan or chart its own path. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 28, 2015.