DAP should have left Pakatan Rakyat earlier - Ismail Sabri

Ismail, who is also Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister, said the late Karpal Singh had once said PAS could implement hudud over his dead body.

"And now PAS has proven it wanted to implement hudud when it was tabled in the Kelantan State Assembly and passed recently.

"So, I feel there is no reason why DAP does not walk the talk. If DAP really has principle, it would have split with PAS. If DAP does not leave PAS, it means DAP does not practice what it preaches.

"So, I challenge DAP to prove it really opposes hudud and and must openly split with PAS," he said after opening the Jelebu Umno Division's Youth, Wanita and Putri cluster conference at the Jelebu Umno Complex in Simpang Pertang here, today.

He said this when asked to comment on a report that Sarawak DAP had announced leaving PR in the state effective immediately.

Its chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the unanimous decision was made because PR's ally, PAS had diverted from the policy of PR by wanting to implement hudud.

On this matter too, Ismail Sabri said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng was still hinting he could not work with PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

"So, it is better for DAP to openly state the party cannot cooperate at all with PAS as DAP opposed hudud. So, I feel it is better they break up," he said.

In his speech at the function, he said numerous slanders had been made especially against Umno leaders and the worst was aimed at Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak with the intention of weakening Umno.

He said the slanders also went down to the UMNO branches, and in fact, now he found out that poison pen letters had been disseminated at the branches attacking the Umno president.