CRACKS are starting to show in Perikatan Negara (PN) as PAS has become agitated with its non-Muslim coalition partner Gerakan for aligning with friend-turned-foe DAP in the sensitive issue of brewers’ funding of Chinese schools.

Whether this is personal opinion or otherwise, PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari has penned a stinging one-liner on his Facebook page which further reflects Gerakan’s struggle to co-exist as a non-Muslim entity in the ‘hardcore’ Muslim opposition coalition.

“Gerakan’s official position on the issue of donations to schools from the proceeds of alcohol sale is very disappointing. If this is what Gerakan always wish to highlight, it is not impossible that we cannot be together in a political bond come GE16 (16^th General Election).”

At a media conference yesterday (July 27) after its central committee meeting at Menara PGRM in Kuala Lumpur, Gerakan president Datuk Dr Dominic Lau Hoe Chai did not hide his party’s stance which concurs with DAP that alcohol or cigarette-related companies should not be exempted from funding Chinese schools.

His justification rhymed with that expressed by DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng - who happened to ticked off his fellow Pakatan Harapan (PH) Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek as behaving like a “PAS education minister” - that Chinese schools have not received adequate funding from the government.

Lau who himself was instrumental in enrolling Gerakan as a component party of PN in February 2021 further contended that most of “the top-notch facilities” in Chinese schools today are made possible from charitable deeds of external parties comprising not only large business corporations but also from small traders and hawkers.

When asked about Gerakan’s stance which is nor parallel with that of its PN allies, namely PAS and Bersatu in the contentious issue, Lau said he will provide an explanation on the matter soonest at a meeting of PN’s top brass.

To a question whether funding by brewers does in any way violate the people’s morality, Lau described as an “exaggeration” to claim that pupils “will be educated as drunkards” just because their schools receive donations from beer companies.

“I myself came from a vernacular school that received donations from alcohol companies but I never become a drunkard,” he asserted.

“How can pupils be influenced to consume alcohol merely because the company logo of an alcohol beverage manufacturer is embedded on the mock cheque during a fund-raising drive?” - July 28, 2024

https://focusmalaysia.my/pas-mulls-ejecting-gerakan-from-pn-for-siding-dap-in-the-brewers-funding-of-chinese-schools-saga/