Hadi: PAS not like PKR, DAP, fights for ‘perfect Islam’

(Malay Mail Online) – PAS members should not liken the party to DAP or PKR, as unlike its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) allies, PAS’s founding struggle is to uphold a “perfect Islam”, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said today.

“We are in the true congregation, the right (congregation), (that) upholds the perfect Islam,” the Marang MP was quoted saying in PAS organ Harakah Daily.

“Don’t think we’re similar. This is not true, its not the same,” he reportedly added when launching a PAS event in the Kolej Universiti Islam Zulkifli Muhammad (KUIZM).

According to a summary of his speech posted by the youth wing of Federal Territories PAS on Facebook, Hadi was also quoted saying that PAS’s struggle to uphold Islam is the “true struggle” compared with other parties.

It also quoted Hadi saying that revenge is not part of the Islamic struggle that PAS follows, and the party does not strive to punish others but to forgive them.

PAS has recently been at loggerheads with ally PKR and DAP over the Selangor mentri besar crisis and the ouster of Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

While the PR leadership has agreed on PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as their sole candidate to replace Khalid, PAS has insisted on adding PKR deputy president Azmin Ali as their second candidate.

Hadi, spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Abd Aziz Nik Mat and its influential cleric faction have also previously supported Khalid to remain as mentri besar, claiming the sacked PKR member had done no wrong.

Its four executive councillors have also stayed on to serve under Khalid’s administration, even as their PKR and DAP counterparts were sacked.

Some Muslim groups, including Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma), have since urged PAS to leave PR and join forces with Umno to gain support from Muslim voters.

Despite that, PAS has reaffirmed that it will stay with PR, citing the resolution adopted during its last annual national congress, or muktamar.

In its last muktamar in 2013, several PAS members had voiced their dissatisfaction that the party was being reduced to mere “pillion riders” in the federal opposition pact and its Islamic struggle had taken a back seat since their alliance.