Nik Aziz coup sends chills through Umno
Written by Ali Cordoba, World Futures
Prime Minister Najib Razak is right: The Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) is divided on cooperation with the United Malays National Organization (Umno). And that is nothing new.
What is new is that the anti-Umno component of the PAS is taking brave steps that is giving the chill to the Umno.
Najib said there are quarters that give more importance to politics than the interest of the ummah, which indicates the difficulty that the Umno is actually having in bringing the PAS to join it in a coalition in the Barisan National (BN).
Nik Aziz, the PAS spiritual leader launched a daunting challenge to the pro-Umno leaders – who includes the President and the Vice-President of the PAS – to hold a party's Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) in order to decide the future of the party. The EGM would also have decided on the role played by Party President Ustad Hadi Awang and Vice-President Nasaruddin Mat Esa in dividing the party over the cooperation with the Umno.
While the party was taken by surprise by Nik Aziz's move who made his wish known through his blog, the fact remains that the PAS cannot continue being misled over which group it will be loyal to. Will it be the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) or will it be the BN? WIth Nik Aziz's call for the EGM, it was clear that news was out about the party leadership still courting the Umno for a possible jump to the BN.
Now thrown in the open, the PAS leadership has to prove it is not working in the shadows with the BN component party the Umno against the Pakatan Rakyat partners with which it is in a coalition that forms the opposition in Malaysia.
