Offer to work with PAS not a U-turn: Kit Siang

GEORGE TOWN: Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang has brushed off suggestions his olive branch to PAS to cooperate was a u-turn.
The DAP parliamentary leader said the issue now was on kleptocracy which went beyond ethnicity, class and age, including the proposal to amend Act 355.
He nonetheless said the offer was his personal stand which has yet to be brought up to the party leadership for discussion.
He said the party was waiting for PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to respond first as there was nothing to discuss if there was no response.
"Whether I am a hypocrite or not, let the people decide," he added in a press conference today when asked about the issue.
Lim on Monday said he was willing to work with PAS if the Islamist party realigned their aim to that of saving Malaysia from becoming a kleptocracy.
Both parties cut ties with each other in 2015 over the issue of hudud resulting in the collapse of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) national opposition pact.
At a separate press conference earlier, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng declined to speak on the matter of DAP cooperating with PAS when asked on the sidelines.
The DAP secretary general said he would let Kit Siang deal with the matter first before responding.
On a separate issue meanwhile, Kit Siang urged Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak to set up a Transformasi Negara 50 (TN50) national consultative council chaired by CIMB Group chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak.
He said the council should also comprise representatives from the government, political parties, civil societies, academics, religious leaders and businessmen to be tasked with specific terms of reference.
He said the national consensus on the fundamentals of Malaysian nation-building should be based on the Malaysian Constitution, the Malaysian Agreement 1963, the Rukun Negara and Vision 2020.