PAS veering away from Islamic agenda, says Nasharudin
(The Malaysian Insider) – As speculation continues to build over his possible departure from PAS, an embattled Nasharudin Mat Isa has broken his silence and accused the party of deviating from its Islamic principles and agenda.
In an exclusive interview with the weekend edition of Berita Harian, Berita Minggu, Nasharudin said that the PAS leadership should not be too preoccupied with the party’s political goals while abandoning its Islamic ones.
He lamented that PAS was no longer seen as “consistent” with its Islamic image and that it could not afford to continually change “terminologies” to suit its political direction.
“As an Islamic organisation PAS has to be consistent with an Islamic face. Do not abandon the party’s principles based on Al-Quran and Hadith over the issue of ‘maqasid’ (goals) and ‘maslahah’ (problems).
“Politics is coloured with perception and this has to be dealt with carefully. The general perception right now is that PAS is ‘loose’ in several aspects, which is dangerous,” he said.
The Bachok MP, who was PAS deputy president until he was defeated by his successor Mohamad Sabu recently, said that PAS could not afford to become too “flexible” to the point where the rights of Islam and the Malay community are disregarded.
He echoed the controversial views of Datuk Dr Hasan Ali, who is under fire for re-igniting talk of PAS-Umno unity.
“Our focus should be towards unity because that is the main necessity. The country’s future, the Malays and Islam hinge on how united we are, especially Malays and Muslims as the majority race.
“The issue of unity must be fought for regardless of political ideologies,” said Nasharudin.
He said that there was a new political perception within PAS, that the party no longer keeps its private matters under wraps.
In reference to news that he and Hasan would be dropped as election candidates, Nasharudin said that such remarks by “some leaders” only inflicted more confusion and discord onto PAS.
“This is not for them to decide, it is for the president (Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang) to. What’s more, he was shocked to discover there were people determining who would contest and who would not.
“This has led to PAS being attacked by all sides, including from within the party.”
