Ulama group flexing its muscles

 

The ulama group in PAS is setting the tone for the party election this year in their bid to put more ulama figures in the top leadership line-up.

Joceline Tan, The Star 

THE grand old man of PAS Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat has been very quiet. He seems to be staying out of the fray in what is arguably the hottest election in the history of the party.

Some said he is unwell but even illness would not have stopped this indomitable politician if he wanted to push for something. At the opening of the party muktamar yesterday, his face looked pinched and he could hardly crack a smile as he leaned hard on his walking stick during the launch of a book written by president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang.

It is all for the better that he keeps mum because his standing in PAS is so special that almost everything he says is analysed and interpreted in a hundred ways.

Nik Aziz is an old hand at the game of politics and he can sense that emotions are running high over the polls. He knows there is some kind of revolt within the ulama brotherhood over the way the party’s Islamic agenda has been sidelined in the name of politics.

The ulama in the party are setting the tone for this year’s muktamar.

For a start, there was not a single contest in the Dewan Ulama as the ulama wing is known. All the posts were settled by consensus. It was their way of saying that this is the way we do things. More importantly, they are sending the signal that they are a united entity and that they will be speaking in one voice.

They unanimously agreed during their wing’s annual meeting that there should be a review of the party’s position in Pakatan Rakyat. It does not mean that they want to take PAS out of the coalition but they want clear guidelines and assurances that the Islamic agenda will not be compromised by the partnership.

They also passed a resolution that the party’s two top posts must be held by an ulama while at least one of the three vice-presidents must be an ulama.

The pro-ulama group in the Youth wing also tried to push through a similar resolution at the Dewan Pemuda meeting but it resulted in a fiery debate with some insisting that it was not right to make the top posts exclusive to the ulama.

When the resolution was put to the vote, those who stood up to support it outnumbered those opposing it. But there were also vocal objection from the floor and, in the end, the resolution was thrown out on the grounds that it would require amending the party constitution.

That particular resolution alone was as good as using a loudhailer to announce that they want incumbent deputy president Mohamad Sabu out.

It confirmed just how paranoid the ulama circle feels about Mat Sabu, as he is known. They are terrified that he will be their president should anything happen to Hadi.

The ulama brotherhood has never been this restless. Given the way events have unfolded in the last few weeks, it is evident that the ulama group has put a lot of planning into its cause.

The outburst by the Penang PAS several days ago seems to be part of the plot. A group of PAS leaders from Penang headed by their deputy state commissioner Muhammad Fauzi Yusoff claimed the party was sidelined by the Penang Pakatan Rakyat government and threatened to pull out of the coalition.

It was very embarrassing for the party but the Penang group had felt frustrated for some time and one of the Youth wing delegates, in explaining the public airing of their grouses, had said: “Please don’t get the idea that we are mad for power. We just want to take power from those who are mad.”

The timing of the Penang incident was to tell the party leadership that their Pakatan marriage in Penang is on the rocks.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was visibly absent at the opening ceremony of the muktamar. He sent his president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim while DAP sent its central committee member Tan Kok Wai.

The top PKR and DAP leaders know that they have become an issue in the PAS election and it was best to keep their distance until the storm blows over.

During a packed press conference by Hadi, Mat Sabu and secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali yesterday, almost all the questions were about the aggressive moves from the ulama group.

Hadi took it in his stride. The nice thing about him is that he does not take things personally and is able to smile his way through awkward situations. He has also become quite astute at steering his way around tricky questions.

Mat Sabu looked tense, clutching his handphone and not saying a word. His future is on the line and he knows that a great deal of the offensive coming from the ulama camp has to do with him sitting up there as their deputy president.

He broke the glass ceiling when he won the post and the conservative ulama have been unable to accept him. He is a threat to their policy of “leadership by the ulama”.

The ulama brotherhood in PAS is moving in one voice this year. There has been an awakening among them because they feel that they have given away too much in the last few years.

Voting for the central committee posts had to be postponed but voting for the posts of the deputy and vice-presidents went ahead. The results will be known before noon today.

A lot is resting on the deputy president contest between Mat Sabu and his challenger Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah.

If Mohd Amar makes it, it means that the ulama clout is still intact and the party wants to return to its original Islamic ideals.

But if Mat Sabu wins again, it means that the party is opting for pragmatic politics over its Islamic agenda and the ulama influence is on the wane.

Everything is about to come down to this moment.