PAS at the crossroads
The answer will be unveiled tonight. If Mat Sabu and the other Erdogan leaders manage to keep their edge, the party’s all-people roadmap and its cordial relationship with PKR and DAP could be further consolidated.
Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily
Mat Sabu has been pretty quiet recently.
The deputy president of PAS used to be highly exposed PAS leader in local media, and is known for his outstanding and vastly popular speeches or rather stage shows.
He is also a very popular figure among Pakatan component parties, one of the PAS leaders easiest to work with.
His power to mobilize people has been well acclaimed. He was the key person behind several mammoth public campaigns.
Unfortunately he lost the Pendang parliamentary seat in Kedah during the recent general elections, a seat PAS never thought it would lose at all.
Some in the party until today still cannot accept the fact that the seat was lost, the seat was held by the much revered late president Fadzil Noor. Even when PAS was at its lows, Pendang voters still went with the party.
The defeat was not only that of Mat Sabu alone but the so-called Erdogan faction of professionals in the party as well.
The party elections two years ago catapulted Mat Sabu to the pinnacle of his political career. He defeated two other opponents with cleric backgrounds in a three-cornered fight to become the party’s first ever non-cleric deputy president while the Erdogan faction clinched the three VP posts.
Mat Sabu, Husam Musa, Mahfuz Omar, Salahuddin Ayub and other central committee members have vowed to transform PAS into a party for all Malaysians while pushing for closer cooperation with other Pakatan allies.
If PAS were to gain a broader support in the GE, in particular support from the Muslims, the status of the Erdogans would be further consolidated. So would the party’s more open roadmap.
But the outcome was that Mat Sabu and many of the Erdogans were defeated in the elections, and the party’s overall performance was lackluster.
The party’s muktamar and party elections beginning today would serve as concluding benchmark. It would be an opportunity for the conservatives and clerics to reclaim their stakes, and time for them to hold the Erdogans accountable for the electoral flop.
It is impossible for the clerics to repeat their past mistakes. In the 2011 party elections, two clerics, Nasharuddin Mat Isa and Tuan Ibrahim both ran for the party’s deputy presidency in a contest that eventually gave the post to Mat Sabu.
The cleric camp is under the commandership of Kelantan deputy MB Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah this time. Mat Sabu is facing a severe test and if he loses the contest, he will be out for good. Fortunately Amar is not a strongman nor a national-level leader. His chances will be very bad if his opponent is Tuan Ibrahim, who enjoys very good acceptance and status and is deemed the next to claim the party presidency.
The clerics have also modified their electoral strategy. They have done a lot of preparations this time round, and taken aggressive onslaught initiatives.
They launched an online campaign several months ago, hitting out at the Erdogans’ roadmap, including the control by DAP and Anwar Ibrahim, compromising on religious matters especially on the use of the word “Allah.”
Mat Sabu has found himself under assault. Online rumors have it that he is a Shiite, a heresy among the country’s strict Sunni system. This could deal a lethal blow on Mat Sabu.
The answer will be unveiled tonight. If Mat Sabu and the other Erdogan leaders manage to keep their edge, the party’s all-people roadmap and its cordial relationship with PKR and DAP could be further consolidated.
But if the clerics have the day, PAS will then revert to its old way, which could bring it closer to Umno, or splinter into a third force outside Pakatan and BN.
