PAS has denied that it is willing to forgive Umno its past mistakes in order to establish a working relationship with the ruling party after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak offered an olive branch last week.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan who initially made the claim yesterday at the Perkasa annual general assembly singled out The Malaysian Insider (TMI), and accused the news portal of misreporting his remarks.
“The TMI report is incomplete, out of context and in fact fabricated by the writer.
“Nowhere in my statement was there any intention to indicate or state that PAS is willing to unite with Umno from a party perspective,” he said in a statement today.
Takiyuddin also claimed that the noisy environment at the Pusat Islam Kuala Lumpur yesterday prevented him from hearing the questions posed by the reporters properly.
He clarified that he never heard the reporters asking him if PAS would forgive Umno, and said the answers he gave were not directed to the question.
“During the interview, I did not hear or answer any question on whether ‘PAS would forgive Umno’.
“As such, I thought there was no such question. Hence, any ‘answer’ given was not true, did not come from me or was what I meant,” Takiyuddin added.
The Kota Baru MP further denied saying the party wanted to explain to PAS members the plan to cooperate with Umno, claiming he had meant to say that they were to explain to members “the confusion, misconception and to clear the allegations against PAS” on the issue.
He went on to say that it was an act of “mala fide” by the news portal to tarnish his reputation and cause unrest among the Islamist party’s members by playing up this issue.
“I regret that the report deliberately caused my statement to create panic and unrest, especially among PAS members, and sully my good name, my integrity, the party’s image and leadership,” Takiyuddin said.
