In a direct attack on Prime Minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim, the Islamists from PAS hinted that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is a ‘better’ Muslim than the ‘reformasi’ leader.

Thus in the current political context in Malaysia, PAS finds it logical to give its support to Dr Mahathir instead of Anwar, who is seen as being closer to non-Malays.

But the party veiled its non-Malay sentiment with a statement that pins its support for Dr Mahathir because of his ‘leniency’ towards Islam.

It divides the Pakatan Harapan government into two distinct groups, one that is pro-Islam and another which is anti-Islam and anti-Malay. It also divides the Pakatan Harapan regime into two, the ‘better Muslims’ fighting for the Malays for Islam and the ‘not so good’ Muslims aligned to non-Malays. Anwar is thus labelled as a ‘lesser’ Muslim political leader.

“So, in this context, right now, the two groups in the PH Government are not clashes between Muslims and non-Muslims, it’s a clash between Muslims.

“So, in this context, we see that Dr Mahathir’s and his team’s views are more lenient and better towards Islam than that of Anwar Ibrahim’s team against Islam and also against the Malays,” the PAS information chief, Kamaruzaman Mohamad said to the HarakahDaily, the organ of the Islamists.

Kamaruzaman said in the current context, with the number of seats available in Parliament after the victory of the PH in the last general elections in May last year, Dr Mahathir is seen as more tolerant towards the Malays and Islam than the group headed by Anwar Ibrahim.

But he says supporting Dr M and supporting the government are two different things.

This means the Islamists will support any initiative that benefits the people and the country and that Dr Mahathir should be given more time to govern the country and is against any change in Prime Minister or Cabinet members.

He said a Cabinet reshuffle will lead to clashes and will have a devastating effect on the people. -/TISG