Nizar a favourite in PAS’s V-P race
(The Straits Times) KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 – Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin, who is struggling to win back the post of Perak Menteri Besar, is a favourite to win a vice-president’s seat in Parti Islam SeMalaysia’s (PAS) elections next month, party officials said.
He is among the upcoming leaders within PAS with professional qualifications, and not from the clerics group, who are expected to dominate in the polls – a sign that the party wants to shift away from being Malay-based.
“Nizar is one of the leading contenders for the three vice-president posts,” a PAS official said.
The British-trained engineer quickly gained popularity for resolving issues affecting minorities during his short tenure as Perak’s chief minister. The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government that he led was toppled by Barisan Nasional in February. PAS is a member of the three-party PR.
An unknown to many PAS members just a year ago, Nizar is now a household name because of the way he calmly handled the Perak crisis.
“He has come out from that looking as the future leader of the nation,” said an aide to a senior party leader.
Nizar’s popularity shows that party members are more concerned about performance than on whether its office-bearers are ulama, or clerics.
Another leading contender for a vice-president’s post is former youth wing chief Salahuddin Ayub, an ex-bank officer with a degree in human development.
These two English-speaking leaders are rising in PAS amid a fierce debate on the party’s future direction.
The PAS bastion is in the east coast and northern Malay-belt states of Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis. But as its nearly one million members have seen in Perak, Selangor, Kedah and Penang – states won by PR in last year’s elections – working with non-Malays will expand PAS’s influence.
Some of the party’s powerful clerics, however, want it to remain the champion of Malay and Muslim rights. Last year, they held “unity talks” with Umno. Others oppose this and want the party to work closely with the multiracial PR alliance instead.
Supporters of the clerics group labelled those who want to get closer to PR as liberal Muslims and “Erdogans”, after Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seen by PAS as a liberal Muslim.
The fight between the so-called pro- unity and Erdogan factions will be keenly played out in the fight for the deputy president’s post. Incumbent deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa, who led some of the “unity” talks with Umno, will likely face off with economist Husam Musa, leader of the Erdogans. A third candidate is widely expected to withdraw. The party’s presidency will remain in the hands of a cleric, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.
