PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang today told the party faithful that they will remain in Pakatan Rakyat as it has gained more with the opposition pact than by struggling alone. He explained to a crucial party seminar that PAS will cast its fortunes with PR due to the political reality of both Muslim and non-Muslim voters in Malaysia. "PAS will remain in Pakatan Rakyat due to the realitiy of politics where there are Muslim and non-Muslim voters," Hadi told the 1,000 party delegates at the PAS Markaz Tarbiyyah in Gombak here. The party president also pointed that PAS had previously formed a mixed government but had failed, thus requiring the need to be part of PR.
"PAS has gained more ground with Pakatan Rakyat even by just losing one by-election in Bagan Pinang," he added, alluding to the alliance's first by-election loss in the peninsula since Election 2008. He earlier said PAS was formed to fulfll the orders of Allah and it had long struggled on its own. The seminar will discuss PAS's future direction but could well throw up the need for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to decide the fundamental issue of whether to co-operate with Umno to advance Islam and Malay unity or stay with PR and hope to capture federal power in the forthcoming general election.
The seminar is unlikely to resolve the fundamental difference over the issues and which course to take to safeguard the future of PAS — how best to capitalise on the new forces at work in the political system to stay ahead. Abdul Hadi was flanked by spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat and party vice-president Salahuddin Ayub when he opened the seminar. Nik Aziz later left as he is unwell. Among those speaking at the seminar is UIA law academic Professor Dr Abdul Aziz Bari, who had started the debate when he criticised the party leadership's ambivalence to issues. Abdul Aziz pointed out the seminar was not about unseating Abdul Hadi but about PAS's direction as an Islamist party.
"The pattern in the next general election will be different, it won't be ABU, Anything But Umno," the law professor said. UM lecturer Dr Abu Hassan Hasbullah also told the seminar that his survey before the last general election showed youths preferred Nik Aziz over Abdul Hadi. Another vice-president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man is also on the list of speakers. Tuan Ibrahim is also heading the disciplinary committee probing Selangor PAS over allegations that the leaders have bad-mouthed the party leadership.
t’s easy to speculate why Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin was arrested last night for preaching in Selangor without a permit. A raft of reasons has already circulated, and even the maverick scholar alludes to hidden hands in his detention. Is it because he is closer to PAS than Umno? Or has it anything to do with Asri’s purported appointment as chief of Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia (Yadim)? Perhaps because he is seen to be a Wahhabi, the austere and puritanical school of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps he is too progressive for Muslim Malaysians? Perhaps he is seen as a threat to other muftis?
After all, Asri is young and popular, gliding and mixing among the liberal Muslims and the political elite in Kuala Lumpur, despite his short stint as the Perlis mufti. It could be for one or all of these reasons that Asri now finds himself on the wrong end of the Syariah law last night. His crime, ostensibly, is to have given lectures without authorisation — despite it being in a private house, and in a country where hundreds preach daily with or without similar “blessings” in houses, suraus, schools or mosques. His greater crime is just being who he is — a maverick scholar who speaks about Islam without all the fluff. Perhaps like the Wahhabis who don’t even celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) birthday or consign their ruler to an unmarked grave upon his death.
Truth is, he has never been liked by his fellow muftis, who saw him as an upstart, not yet grey enough in the head or beard to be taken seriously. He is simple, direct and has a weblog; a superstar preacher shaking the authority of his peers. Even the man ambivalent about the religious elite, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has taken a liking to Asri and has told him to remain bipartisan and equidistant among Muslims politicians divided between Umno and PAS. But PAS has been courting Asri. And so has Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who has recommended him to head Yadim, the state-sponsored missionary group. It is currently led by the PAS-turned-Umno man Datuk Mohd Nakhaie Ahmad, and his replacement — especially Asri — would be a boost for Umno’s Islamist credentials in the next general elections.
But the Syarie Lawyers Association (PGSM) has opposed Asri’s appointment on grounds he has defamed some of Islam’s illustrious imams, a charge the scholar has denied. He also appears to have rejected the Yadim appointment due to the blatant opposition towards him. It well maybe that his arrest yesterday was for petty and private reasons related to Yadim, and old scores being settled now that he has returned from his post-graduate studies in the United Kingdom. Many thought Asri would stay on in the West or return to teaching in Universiti Sains Malaysia. But his popularity and lectures among the capital elite has probably turned them green with envy.
And what better way to cut him down to size than by arresting him for the simple offence of preaching without a permit. After all, if a man can’t follow the law, can he be trusted to enforce the law? Who knows? What is clear is that baser instincts and motives govern those who enforce Islamic religious laws in Malaysia, making them as human as the ones they think are sinning against the faith and Allah.
“What doesn’t break you only makes you stronger”. The phrase serves as a guide for the ousted Perak Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government as they move on from one gruelling battle to the next to regain power. And if anyone should think that the coalition no longer has any fight left in them, then they are far from right. The events of the Oct 28 sitting has done nothing to dampen the spirits of the PR brigade. In fact, according to the troop’s general, former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, they were now even more inspired to persevere. Next week, top PR leaders will congregate to discuss their next course of action, which Nizar says will encompass taking on their political foes “in a different realm this time”.
“Whatever obstruction the Barisan Nasional (BN) dares to impose upon us only makes us more and more determined. “In fact, we have become stronger, we have become wiser — it is from these trying times that we draw our greatest strengths from. They cannot break our unified front,” he told The Malaysian Insider today. Nizar admitted that support for the Perak PR was waning as many felt the ousted government should just lay down arms and wait for the next general election to launch its attack against BN. He has, however, chosen to look at the advice in a different manner, saying that such belief was born out of sympathy over the violent injustices inflicted upon PR assemblymen. “They are saying that because they are feeling sympathy for us. They are worried for our safety. They have seen what was done to us and they are aware of all the persecutions we have had to endure,” said Nizar.
He said PR lawmakers would not be disheartened by such comments but were instead proud that their supporters sympathised with them and were willing to accept it if their leaders loosened their ties and called it a day. “But we cannot stop this fight — it will go on. We want to change the political landscape, not just in Perak but in all of Malaysia. “Perak is very important because we can set the example for all the other states, which are now taking hard hits from BN,” he said. Nizar said that PR could not afford to take a break from the fight or even sneak a swig of water when the half-time whistle is blown. He knows the people may forget. They may forget how the government was “stolen”; how the PR’s Speaker V. Sivakumar had been forcible removed from the Speaker’s chair on May 7; how the police had supposedly manhandled the opposition before Wednesday’s sitting; and most important of all, they may forget how well the PR had done when they held on to government for 10 months last year.
This is why, Nizar said, the PR assemblymen had continued spreading their wings across the state through countless ceramahs and dinners, making sure the people remembered. “Yes, support is waning. But we need to prevent that. We need to remind the people of why we are fighting and whom we are fighting for. “We need to tell them, explain to them, keep them informed of the violence we have had to endure and why we cannot just give up and let go,” he said. Nizar noted that PR’s fight was not a selfish one, for they were not in the battle to regain control of the state. “What we want is to return democracy to Perak. To give the people back their right to choose their own government. I am not here because I want (Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr) Zambry (Abd Kadir) to leave the mentri besar’s room so I can sit there,” he said.
Despite his bravado however, it is clear that Nizar, like most of the other PR assemblymen, are tired of fighting. Not because they have lost their spirit but simply because they feel they have had no choice but to walk into most battles with their eyes closed. A former state executive councillor Thomas Su said that the PR assemblymen may seem strong on the outside, but were really humans inside, too. “It is quite scary to walk into something without knowing what the outcome would be. On Wednesday (during the sitting), we did not know what they had planned for us. We did not know how we would walk out of there — whether we would be safe or hurt.
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