May 06, 2011
Mahfuz said Umno was the representation of that which PAS was fighting against. — file pic
KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — PAS vice president Datuk Mahfuz Omar has painted Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Malay party as the greatest danger to the country, as he listed out why the Islamist party will not link forces with Umno.
“We are against Umno not because they are Umno, we are against the party because they are oppressive, they suppress the citizens, they are national robbers and they (Umno, and not its members) are public enemy No. 1,” Mahfuz said in a statement today.
The senior PAS leader appeared to be responding to calls from those who want to see the two political arch-foes link up and become a united front for the Malay-Muslim community.
Recently, Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas agreed to join up and battle Israel to free their homeland.
Mahfuz noted that Malaysia’s Malay-Muslim politics have been compared to the latest political development in the Middle East, with some questioning why Umno and PAS could not do the same.
Mahfuz said that Hamas only agreed to unite with Fatah for the sole aim of freeing Palestine from Israel’s oppressive colonisation.
“How can PAS unite with Umno when it is Umno that is oppressing Malaysian citizens?” he argued.
“How can we PAS unite with those that practise a corrupt culture, who practise a gangster-like political culture and make fun of Allah’s laws?” he added.
The Pokok Sena MP challenged Umno to amend the Federal Constitution and other laws to return oil royalty payments to Kelantan and Terengganu, which had been halted after the BN lost the states.
Kelantan is suing national oil company Petronas for millions in outstanding oil royalties owed to the state since 1975.
The five per cent royalty payment to Terengganu was indirectly resumed in 2004, as “goodwill payments”, after BN returned to power there.
Mahfuz also dared Umno to set up royal panels to investigate several multimillion ringgit scandals, such as the Scorpene submarine purchase; the Bumiputera equity issue; outflows from oil and gas revenue; and the death of senior Customs man, Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamad, while in the custody of national graftbusters last month.
“If Umno is honest, it will present these constitutional and legal amendments,” he said.
The PAS lawmaker said in the meantime, his party will continue to push through its agenda to amend the Constitution and the country’s laws to ensure the judiciary is truly independent and the Attorney General is accountable to Parliament.
He also recommended that federal agencies, namely the Election Commission, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Registrar of Societies, be placed under Parliament’s watch, together with an Independent Police Complaints and Misconducts Commission (IPCMC) recommended by a previous royal panel.
Mahfuz said PAS’s struggle was “to bring back the Supremacy of Parliament that had been neglected by Umno/BN since Independence”.
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