The Pakatan Rakyat leadership council is scheduled to meet tomorrow to decide on the fate of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (third from left) whose sodomy verdict is expected on Tueday but a few leaders have been squabbling openly about hudud and local council elections. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, February 7, 2015.With the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leadership council due to meet tomorrow, PAS has called on leaders of the coalition to be mindful of what they say until then to ensure that the meeting is fruitful.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali, who is in charge of convening the meeting, said that all parties should wait for the outcome before commenting on it.
"Don't speculate, let us come for the meeting with an open heart and without any pre-judgments because of our previous statements," he told The Malaysian Insider.
He was commenting on the various statements that have been made prior to the leadership meeting tomorrow, which would be the first for this year.
The attendance of PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang is highly anticipated, as he had been absent from such meetings for more than a year.
The last PR leadership council meeting was held in October last year and tomorrow's will be significant for the contentious issues that the opposition pact is likely to discuss, namely Kelantan's hudud or Islamic penal code enactment, local council elections and the future of PR following the Federal Court's verdict on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy appeal on Tuesday.
PR still has not decided on a new opposition leader should Anwar fail in his appeal and be jailed by the court.
However, hudud may not end up on the table for discussion after Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob told PAS portal Harakahdaily last night that the bill for the enactment would not be disclosed.
He said it was under "embargo" and had to be brought to the state legislative assembly first.
In the run-up to tomorrow's meeting, however, some statements have irked PAS, including one from DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who had said that public disputes between both parties could not possibly be resolved in the February 8 meeting.
"It all depends on whether it can be resolved or not," he said in Penang, referring to the conflict between PAS and DAP regarding the implementation of hudud and local council elections.
Lim and Mustafa had been engaged in a war of words over Hadi's attendance at past meetings and local council elections, with Lim accusing PAS of backing out of the opposition pact's common stand on the issue.
Despite Mustafa's caution to all parties to watch their words ahead of tomorrow's meeting, The Star today reported him ticking off Lim again, this time questioning the DAP leader's own attendance at past PR leadership meetings.
"Lim was not present at many of the meetings," The Star quoted Mustafa as saying in telling Lim not to issue any ultimatum to Hadi.
"The president is coming, but not because DAP is insisting on it," he was quoted as saying.
Mustafa recently announced that the PR leadership council would meet tomorrow, following a meeting between him and PKR de facto leader Anwar.
Mustafa also guaranteed that Hadi would attend the meeting as it would be after the PAS central committee meets earlier in the day.
Hadi though, in a late statement to PAS organ Harakah last night, said that he was not a schoolboy who needed to be told what to do and would attend the meeting if he wanted to.
Tomorrow's meeting will take place at the PAS headquarters in Jalan Raja Laut, Kuala Lumpur, at 2.30pm.
PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu said, as a Muslim, Hadi would definitely attend the meeting unless there were some unforeseen circumstances like falling sick and others.
“We have been made to understand he will attend the PAS meeting in the morning and then the Pakatan Council meeting in the afternoon.”
The Star reported yesterday reported Lim as saying that without Hadi, the PR meeting would not be held.
DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke previously said that the party's central executive committee (CEC) had approved a resolution that stressed that its leadership would now only attend PR meetings with Hadi's attendance.
This was to avoid a situation where decisions are made in the meeting without his blessing only to have him dispute them later. – February 7, 2015.
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