Mustafa to Nash: Are you an ‘enemy agent’?
The PAS secretary general says the former party deputy should answer the question if he is an agent bent on weakening PAS.
(Free Malaysia Today) – PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali today dared former deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa (photo) to confirm or deny if he was acting as an enemy agent tasked to “weaken” the Islamic party from within.
Mustafa said this in reply to an accusation made by Nasharudin yesterday that PAS was veering away from its Islamic agenda.
“Before I reply to his (criticism), I want him to answer that (of being an enemy agent),” he told FMT when asked to comment on Nasharudin’s criticism published in an interview with Umno-linked Malay daily Berita Harian yesterday.
Mustafa had told party organ Harakah recently that he was informed of an “external agenda” to weaken and damage PAS, saying that Nasharudin could be “acting as the agent” with or without him realising it.
In response, an embattled Nasharudin, who’s future in PAS now hangs by the balance, had lamented that his party was no longer perceived to be “consistent” in its Islamic image.
He also suggested that PAS’s top leadership was sacrificing Islam for political gain as it changes Islamic “terminologies” to suit its political interest.
Nasharudin, the Bachok MP, had also said that PAS could not afford to become too “flexible” to the point where the rights of Islam and the Malay community are disregarded.
His views are shared by former Selangor PAS chief Dr Hassan Ali, a known Islamic hardliner, who is now under fire for his open attempt to reignite the “unity talk” with archrival Umno.
The scandalous attempt to build a bridge with Umno was seen as the major factor behind the ousting of the conservatives, including both Nasharudin and Hassan, in the recent party polls.
A future without the duo
Nasharudin was replaced as PAS deputy president by progressive Mohamad Sabu while Hassan was replaced as the party’s Selangor chief.
While he had vehemently denied any attempt to forge closer relation with Umno in the past, Nasharudin had finally come clean in the interview yesterday that he would strive to unite the Malays “regardless of ideologies” in the name of Islam.
Talks are rife that PAS is now preparing to move on without the two. It was also said that both are likely to be removed as candidates in the coming national polls.
