PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang's surprising endorsement of Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim to remain as Selangor menteri besar has thrown Pakatan Rakyat (PR) into a spin, and could even risk a break-up, say insiders.Some PAS leaders have expressed shock but there has been no official reaction from PKR and DAP over Hadi's remarks but coalition insiders say it went against the PR leadership council decision on Wednesday to mull over PKR's proposal that party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail take over the job.
"The question now is, who speaks for PAS? Is it the leadership that attended the PR leadership meeting or just Hadi? And is he repudiating the PR statement now?" a PR insider told The Malaysian Insider.
"It is up to PAS to resolve that issue now. As far as PR is concerned, we have all agreed to replace Khalid and the replacement comes from PKR," he added.
Another PR leader also warned that Hadi's decision to back Khalid could have far-reaching consequences for PR, including a break-up if the leadership council decision was not upheld.
"Anything can happen now, from the real threat of the pact breaking up or even snap polls.
"We are not prepared but we have no choice but to sketch out all scenarios," he said, adding that they have to wait for PAS to make its final decision on Khalid, who has been facing criticism of not acting in the coalition's interests.
The PAS leadership is due to meet on August 10 to discuss PKR's proposal for Dr Wan Azizah to replace Khalid but Hadi remained adamant yesterday that the two-term menteri besar has done no wrong to deserve the sack.
"I have heard all the opinions, collected it all before I finally found that the PAS grassroots agree that Khalid remains because he has fulfilled the trust," Hadi said in Terengganu yesterday, citing Selangor PAS commissioner Iskandar Samad's remarks that the state chapter did not support the idea of replacing Khalid.
Most PAS leaders, who were contacted, declined to comment on Hadi's remarks but central committee member Khalid Samad said a final decision has yet to be made.
"We have agreed to discuss this on August 10. So I presume that this is not PAS's official decision yet," said the Shah Alam MP.
Khalid Samad also said Iskandar's remarks did not represent Selangor PAS as the two meetings between the state party leadership and the national leadership did not produce any consensus about Khalid's job as menteri besar.
Selangor PAS committee member Izham Hashim also confirmed that the state chapter has yet to decide whether Khalid should go or stay on as menteri besar.
"The meeting did not achieve any consensus as we all had differing views. The meeting decision was to leave it to the party leadership to negotiate with our Pakatan Rakyat friends to get consensus," Izham told The Malaysian Insider.
PAS information chief Datuk Mahfuz Omar said he did not know about Hadi's remarks on the matter.
"We will meet after Hari Raya," he said, referring to the Hari Raya Aidil Fitri holidays next week.
But this is not the first time that Hadi's decisions has rocked Selangor PR.
He had personally endorsed Ridzuan Ismail for the Kota Damansara state seat in election 2013 although the seat was being defended by PSM president Dr Nasir Hashim, who stood on a PKR ticket as the party was not a PR member. Both lost to BN.
There were questions about Hadi endorsing Ridzuan as only the PAS secretary-general, Datuk Mustafa Ali, was authorised to issue letters certifying election candidates.
Despite the loss in Kota Damansara, PR grabbed a bigger victory in Selangor with PAS and DAP winning 15 seats each while PKR took 14.
Umno holds the other 12 in the 56-seat state assembly.
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