24 Apr 2024, 02:36 Kuching
23 Apr 2024, 19:36 London
Pakatan Harapan chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad should stop “slandering” PAS and reveal his coalition’s source of funding, the party said today.
Deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said that he is baffled by Harapan’s approach to campaigning for the 14th general election, by claiming that PAS is being paid by Umno to defeat the coalition.
“Is this because he (Mahathir) feels that the anticipated ‘Malay tsunami’ is moving towards PAS, which is corruption-free?
“The claim (that Umno gave PAS money) is a shallow one that has no other intention than to confuse and ‘steal’ the rakyat’s votes using dirty tactics,” he said in a statement.
According to Tuan Ibrahim, Mahathir cannot accept PAS as the party has been graft-free since he was the prime minister, and because the component parties in the coalition he currently leads are also “embroiled in corruption.”
“It is unfortunate that the rakyat has to put up with this disgusting, uncivilised political culture.
“What lesson is Harapan trying to teach the rakyat?” he asked.
Instead of continuing his “slanderous” comments against PAS, Tuan Ibrahim said, Mahathir should instead answer the question put forth by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang about Harapan’s own source of funding.
“Where is Harapan getting the funds for the general election from? Where does Mahathir get the money from, to fly here and there, on private jets? Who is funding him?
“If he is a friend of Mahathir, who is he? Please reveal the person, instead of just slandering PAS,” said Tuan Ibrahim.
What the Deputy President of PAS is saying is perfectly logical. Sarawak Report has long argued in favour of transparency in terms of political funding in Malaysia, which is the democratic norm.
He has laid down a great challenge to Harapan.
But, how come PAS itself has failed totally to ask its own acknowledged potential ‘coalition partner’ BN to reveal the identity of the so-called ‘Arab Royal’, who put over a billion dollars into the private account of Najib Razak?
Equally, and far more pertinently, how come PAS has itself refused to give the name of the ‘individual’ whom it has now been forced to admit walked into a KL branch of Islamic Bank on 21st March and put RM2.5 million in cash (from a suitcase) into the party’s election accounts?
Sarawak Report is therefore left utterly ‘baffled’ by the double standards of these preachers from PAS.
Perhaps PAS could work harder to explain why they think that what should apply to others ought not apply to them?
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