ALOR STAR: Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor said Gerakan may leave Perikatan Nasional whenever the party wishes.
The PN election director said Pas would never push Gerakan out of the coalition, but the party may just leave if it strongly feels like doing so.
"They are the ones who issued an open statement, threatening to leave PN. So, just leave. The door is there," he said after launching the state-level Jalur Gemilang campaign in conjunction with the 67th Merdeka celebration in Wisma Darul Aman here today.
Sanusi was responding to a recent statement from Gerakan deputy president Oh Tong Keong, who said his party would not mind quitting PN in order to defend Chinese education and if the coalition partners do not respect the rights of non-Muslims..
The Kedah menteri besar denied that he was being arrogant by telling off Gerakan, stressing that he was merely responding to the party's statement.
Sanusi said he believed Gerakan's stance on the issue was driven by the party's wishes to please the Chinese voters.
"They want the Chinese voters to support the party, so they defended issues close to the community. Malaysian politics is that simple, based on race and community's interests.
"If you want to secure the votes, simply defend something regardless of whether it's right or wrong.
"That's the difference (between them) and us (Pas) as we are consistent in defending the truth," he said.
Sanusi said any political party that bows down to pressure from the people does not have a strong principle as its focus is just to be populist.
"Some say the people's voice is a sacred voice, but that's not necessarily correct. How many sacred voices are there in Malaysia? Is it 34 million and should a leader follow everything said by the 34 million people?"
Sanusi also brushed off claims by Gerakan president Datuk Dominic Lau that PN has never sat down to streamline differences amongst its component parties.
"We have discussions... there is a monthly meeting. We don't have any issue with them (Gerakan) but it was they who made an open statement threatening to leave PN.
"Yesterday I read the statement by PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin calling for internal issues to be resolved internally.
"Hence, we should stop speaking up and just respond to what they (Gerakan) say," he said.