KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia’s three-party opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) looks to be on the verge of collapse following the Democratic Action Party’s (DAP) decision to sever ties with Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) president Abdul Hadi Awang, as both parties traded barbs publicly yesterday.

After a Central Executive Committee meeting on Monday night, the DAP emerged saying it could no longer work with Mr Hadi, accusing him of being dishonest and dishonourable for breaking promises and cooperating with the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party in violation of the PR’s common policy framework.

“As Hadi is the PAS leader in PR, the DAP’s decision to end all ties with Hadi will effectively put the PR leadership council in limbo,” said DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng yesterday. He added that the DAP will meet the leaders of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), the third party in the pact, to discuss its future.

…Dr Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow of the Malaysian Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told TODAY that the public spat between the DAP and PAS might not necessarily lead to the PR pact splitting up.

“This is just grand posturing by the two PR component parties, mostly to appease their respective hard-core constituencies: The DAP has to act tough on behalf of its mostly non-Muslim supporters; PAS has to similarly put up a tough face in front of its mostly conservative supporters,” he said.