Victorious Mat Sabu seeks to widen PAS’s appeal
(The Malaysian Insider) – Newly elected PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu believes his new position will see the party strengthening its image as a national party, and stressed today the importance of the non-Malay electorate in the coming general election.
The Penang-born Mohamad also took pains to assure members that the new leadership will not change the party’s direction and denied that PAS is divided between the different factions.
“Ulama still have a great influence in the party especially with the ulama and shura council. We are an Islamist party and unlike Umno where the religious scholars are placed under a bureau. We have a shura council where they can control the party’s direction.
“I think the new leadership will bring any new momentum but what we want is to win the 13th general election, not only from the vote of our supporters but we must get the support of many including the non-Muslims,” he told reporters here.
The popular PAS leader won the party deputy presidency with 420 votes, leading a group of progressive leaders to counter conservatives who prefer to link up with Umno.
The 56-year-old defeated incumbent Nasharudin Mat Isa who received only 224 votes and vice-president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man who came second with 399 votes. A total of 1,100 delegates voted in this year’s party elections.
Mohamad, popularly known as Mat Sabu, was contesting the post for the second straight time against the three-term deputy president, who together with Tuan Ibrahim, are seen as leaders from the ulama or scholars’ group.
The three-cornered contest was billed as a contest between the party’s conservative ulama faction and the professionals (dubbed the Erdogans in a reference to progressive Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan).
Today, Mohamad said that the third candidate, Tuan Ibrahim, was a significant factor in him winning the post.
