GEORGE TOWN, Oct 28 – The appointment of former PAS deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa to head the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) shows the Islamist party and Umno are again working towards teaming up to form a unity government, former PAS ally DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng.
He congratulating PAS deputy president Nasharudin, a known advocate of the PAS-Umno unity pact idea, Lim, who is also Penang chief minister, also pointed out that the former Bachok MP has criticised the newly-formed Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition.
“After his attacks against Pakatan Harapan, now he is appointed. As for whether he’s moderate or not, we can see from his records,” said Lim who is also Bagan MP said in his office Komtar here on Wednesday. Nasharudin, who is the Nassar Foundation chair, was announced today as the new chief executive officer of the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMMF), a brainchild of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Nasharudin was replaces Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, a former Umno progressive who left the ruling party to join PKR on October 15. GMMF chairman Tan Sri Razali Ismail also had made the announcement in a statement on Wednesday afternoon which Nasharudin appointment will be effective on November 1.
Besides that, Nasharudin was also former Yan MP (1999-2004) and the Bachok MP from 2008 until 2013. During his tenure, he was one of the Islamist party’s leading proponents of a unity government with political rival Umno. In the meantime, the relations between PAS and DAP soured for months until finally breaking off earlier this year over PAS’s insistence in pursuing its hudud ambition in Kelantan.
While the PAS in its annual general meeting in June had also decided to break ties with DAP, causing the collapse of Pakatan Rakyat. The opposition pact is now known as Pakatan Harapan, made up of DAP, PKR and new party Parti Amanah Negara. It does not include PAS.
