PM admits offering Pas to form Selangor coalition government

PM admits offering Pas to form Selangor coalition government

KUALA LUMPUR,July 25 - Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dropped another bombshell today when he admitted that Umno did offer Pas to share the Selangor state government immediately after the March 8 general election.

The Prime Minister said the decision was made when Umno emerged as the party with the largest number of seats - 18 of the total 56 state seats - while Pas won eight seats. With another two seats from Umno's ally MCA, and possibly one from Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Barisan Nasional could have formed a coalition government with Pas with a simple majority if the offer was accepted by Pas.

"At that time Umno felt that it has the right to seek the opportunity to form the government and negotiate with any party to form the government. It is in that process this thing came up, surfacing that kind of argument.

"There is nothing wrong about it, nothing bad about it… the government had not been formed and Umno felt that as the party with highest number of votes we can seek alliance or cooperation for coalition with any party,". Abdullah told reporters after an event in Putrajaya here this afternoon.

He said that if they had enough seats to present them to the Sultan of Selangor, it was enough to form the state government at that time. "But it never happened," he added.

The Prime Minister confirmed former Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Khir Toyo's claim, revealed in his blog early this week, that Umno had offered to form a coalition government with Pas in Selangor.

The Sungai Panjang state assemblyman even claimed that Pas was offered the post of mentri besar as well as deputy mentri besar and four state exco posts. However Mohd Khir blamed de facto opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for scuttling the plan.

When asked whether about the Selangor mentri besar post which Mohd Khir offered to Pas, Abdullah said: "What are you talking about? Nothing to do with what I've been talking about (just now)."

The Prime Minister explained that the decision to woo Pas was done because the Islamic party was seen as a single entity and not part of any formal organisation similar to the federal government's BN.

"Maybe at that time, because Umno had had the highest number of votes… We represent BN but for their party although they were in opposition, there were no such body (Pakatan Rakyat) that had surfaced as a formal registered political party the way we had in BN."

A week ago Abdullah made a surprise admission that he had met top Pas leaders three times after the general election; the revelation which threw the opposition into fierce internal debates over the secret talks.

On Wednesday Pas top leaders finally agreed that there would be no more muzakarah (dialogue) with Umno except for ordinary informal meetings; signaling the end of possible cooperation between the two Malay-based parties.

Despite Pas's reluctance, yesterday's Umno supreme council meeting decided to continue having talks with the Islamic party although it was clarified that it would have nothing to do with any members or leaders crossing over from each other's party.

Veteran opposition leader and DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang castigated the Umno offer to Pas, saying it smacked of racialism.

kzso - pas can still control selangor........