PR lost due to PKR’s insistence Anwar be PM, says PAS

Mustafa Ali is convinced that had Tengku Razaleigh been named as the candidate instead, PR would be the ruling coalition in Putrajaya now.

PETALING JAYA: PKR’s insistence that former Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim be named as their choice for prime minister led to Pakatan Rakyat failing to garner enough Malay votes to ensure its victory during the last general election, said PAS election director Mustafa Ali.

Speaking exclusively to The Malaysian Insider, Mustafa said PAS proposed that Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, also known as Ku Li be named instead but that PKR had flat refused.

“I am confident that if we had announced Tengku Razaleigh as our choice for prime minister, we would have got more support from the Malays and it would have led Pakatan to victory,” Mustafa told the news portal.

He outlined the proposal, explaining that Ku Li and Anwar were to share the post of PM for half a term each but that PKR was not in agreement with the arrangement.

“We proposed that Ku Li become prime minister for half a term and Anwar the second half. But PKR still wanted Anwar,” he said, explaining that DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang was not giving the full picture when he said PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had rejected Anwar and pushed for Ku Li as PM instead.

“Not once did Hadi reject Anwar as the candidate for prime minister. We just never announced the candidate because of strategy problems,” he said, explaining that a report they received before the 13th GE said that PR could win but only if it could garner more Malay votes than it currently had.

“We needed just 3 to 5 per cent more Malay votes for Pakatan (to defeat Barisan Nasional). We had enough Chinese votes. But how were we to gain more Malay votes?” he asked, saying that Ku Li would have helped the coalition secure that extra percentage of votes had it not been for PKR’s decision.

Mustafa explained that when Ku Li showed his readiness to join PR, PAS proposed the shared prime ministerial post with him and that he was agreeable to it.

He explained further, “DAP said that if Anwar and Pakatan agree, DAP can accept it.”

However as it turned out PKR stuck to their guns of offering Anwar alone as PR’s candidate for PM. “The PKR secretary-general sent a letter to PAS informing that the party decided Anwar was its choice for prime minister.”

He said when PR was asked to announce its candidate for PM, PAS refrained from naming any individual.

“We weren’t rejecting Anwar, but our strategy at that time was to gain more Malay votes,” he explained, adding however that as far as PKR was concerned, only Anwar could be PM if the Opposition coalition had won.