Obviously, what I have tried to do in the last 14 months was a failure as the PAS President, Hadi Awang, believed that my suggestion that PAS join the Anwar Unity Government was an official proposal and not my personal unofficial view.
PAS information chief Khairil Nizam Khirudin said that “it was in fact DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang who had the overture” that PAS join the Anwar unity government.
Khairil is wrong. I am not the DAP adviser.
As I said in response to PAS Deputy President, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man on 18th May,
“Firstly let me clarify that the proposal for co-operation between the Anwar Unity Government and PAS to resolve the 60-year water problem and the lack of development in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah is my personal idea and not that of DAP as I have not discussed it with the DAP Secretary-General Anthony Loke or any other DAP leaders.
“In fact, this is why I declined Anthony Loke’s proposal to appoint me as a DAP mentor as I want to be able to give my personal views and ideas on the current political situation, national and international, without committing the DAP.
“I think my efforts of more than a year have proved this point and this clarification should put it beyond a shadow of doubt.”
Apparently, the PAS Information chief thinks otherwise.
But did Hadi agree with his Information Chief?
I issued a statement on 29th May asking Hadi what he was smoking when he claimed after Tuan Ibrahim’s statement and my second clarification that PAS was offered the chance to join the Anwar Unity Government but Hadi wanted a dominant role as it had the most number of parliamentary seats of all political parties.
I said:
“This shows Hadi’s lack of sincerity in wanting to be part of the unity government, as he is more interested in PAS domination than in unity.
“Or could Hadi mistake my suggestion that PAS should work together with the Anwar Unity Government to resolve long-standing issues of the 60-year water problem and the lack of development in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah as an official invitation to Hadi for PAS to join the Anwar unity government?
“Hadi cannot be unaware of my clarification that this was my personal idea and not that of DAP or that of the Anwar unity government as I have not discussed it with the DAP Secretary-General Anthony Loke or any other DAP leaders, let alone the leaders and Ministers of the Anwar unity government.
“Although I support the idea of PAS being part of the Anwar unity government, PAS must demonstrate a change of attitude to show that it supports the Yang di Pertuan Agong’s call for political stability and national unity in Malaysia.
“For a start, is Hadi prepared to retract and apologise for the numerous wild and preposterous allegations he has made against the DAP and me?
“Secondly, will PAS MPs show that they will stop playing up race and religious issues and be model MPs who support political stability and national unity?
“Thirdly will PAS support the objective to make Malaysia the role model for the world for inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inter-cultural and inter-civilisation dialogue, understanding, tolerance, and harmony?”
Let Hadi state that he thought my proposal was an official one on behalf of the Anwar Unity Governemnt and let him explain whether he would accept my three proposals before PAS join the Anwar Unity Government.
Clearly, the PAS Information Chief is not in touch with the PAS President to issue the ridiculous statement that I was the one to make the overture for PAS to join the Anwar unity government.
Hadi had not acted as a responsible, honest, and respected Islamic leader in the run-up to the 15th General Election last November, as Hadi was found to be the most strident in inciting ethnic-based narratives on social media in the lead-up to the 15th general election (GE15) according to an independent report revealed yesterday.
The report titled “Social Media monitoring of Malaysia’s 15th General Elections” said Abdul Hadi and his party were complicit to incitement by neither calling out nor restricting social media users from further spreading hate in relation to ethnic groups.
“So these actors are fuelling hate narratives, as well as user-generated comments and they were silent, so we can say they are complicit since they did not call out.
“It was very telling through the entire monitoring period,” Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) executive director Wathshlah Naidu said during the report’s launch in Kuala Lumpur.
With a total of 99,563 unique messages on social media analysed between October 20 and November 26 last year, the report found that “a significant majority” of social media posts comprised ethnic and religion-based narratives.
Wathshlah said Abdul Hadi himself was the sole individual with two posts reaching “Level Three” severity, for his posts which were categorised as containing dehumanising and hostile language.
Citing a social media post by Abdul Hadi ahead of the November polls, the report said the lawmaker has actively propagated anti-Chinese sentiments and antagonised DAP through the language used, which was further exacerbated by misinformation and disinformation.
“In fact, Abdul Hadi’s aforementioned TikTok posting on Malay election candidates fielded by DAP as ‘cunning and dangerous’ was found to have the highest engagement at all social media platforms combined at almost 2.5 million,” the report added.
Will Hadi apologise for his irresponsible and dishonest role in the social media in the run-up to the 15th General Election as revealed by the report?
(Media Statement by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, May 31, 2023)
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