PETALING JAYA: PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang took a swipe at Umno for wanting to save its leaders who have been hauled to court.
Perikatan Nasional (PN), meanwhile, wanted to save the country, he said.
“We want to save the rakyat, but they (Umno leaders) want to save themselves,” Hadi said, adding that this was why Umno decided against working with the Islamic party.
He said this at the unveiling of Kedah PN candidates for the coming polls.
Last month, Hadi said PAS was “delaying” its cooperation with Umno as some leaders in the Barisan Nasional (BN) lynchpin were corrupt and greedy for power.
Hadi also claimed that some Umno politicians were dropped as candidates for the 15th general election as they did not toe the party line.
“There were those in Umno that didn’t agree (with their leaders), and they were axed.
“Insya Allah, they are with us.”
Several Umno leaders who were believed to be aligned to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob were excluded from the list of candidates announced by BN last night.
They are believed to be former Arau MP Shahidan Kassim (federal territories minister), former Ketereh MP Annuar Musa (communications and multimedia minister), Halimah Sadique (national unity minister), Dr Adham Baba (science, technology and innovation minister) and Zahidi Zainul Abidin (deputy communications and multimedia minister).
In his speech, he also took a swipe at BN governments for depriving Kelantan and Terengganu of their well-deserved oil royalties and for the corruption cases involving some of its leaders.
On the contrary, he praised the Kelantan state government for being “clean” with none of its leaders facing any court cases for bribery.
PN is contesting all 15 seats in Kedah for GE15, with nine candidates from PAS and six from Bersatu.
