Khairy: PAS is unprincipled and flip-flops
KUALA LUMPUR: PAS is politically motivated to flip-flop on its stand on the kalimah Allah issue to gain the support of Muslim voters, said Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin.
He added that the party was forced to come to a decision protesting the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims as it had come to realise that the majority of Muslims in the country were not supportive of the word being used in the Malay version of the Bible.
“This shows that PAS is unprincipled and flip-flops,” he said, adding PAS feared losing the Muslim votes.
“I view it as PAS bowing to political pressure. In actual fact, their Syura Council based its decision not so much on religious precepts but on a political slant,” Khairy told reporters after the launching of the Bantuan Lesen 1Malaysia pre-registration here yesterday.
He was asked to comment on the PAS Syura Council decision on Sunday that the word “Allah” cannot be used in place of God in any non-Muslim publication.
Touching on speculation that PAS was unhappy with the DAP over the low turnout of non-Malay supporters at the KL112 rally over the weekend, Khairy said: “I heard here some quarters in PAS are not too happy that DAP leaders were not able to mobilise enough non-Malay supporters for the gathering.
“This may have led to finger pointing and the blame game between PAS and DAP.”
Meanwhile, former Selangor PAS chief Datuk Dr Hassan Ali commended the Syura Council on its decision, saying it was still capable of upholding the party’s Islamic policy.
He said it was also a big blow to opposition leaders like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Guan Eng as well as some people in PAS he decribed as “parasites”.
Dr Hassan, who now heads the non-governmental organisation Jati, said: “The decision is directly against these two leaders.
“It is also timely for these parasites in PAS who had been acting as a conduit for the party to bow down to the demands of the PKR and DAP, especially on big and sensitive issues,” he said in a statement here yesterday.