Is PAS heading for a leadership crisis?
Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, Malay Mail Online
PAS’ eleventh hour nominations for the Selangor mentri besar post could suggest a looming internal leadership crisis, with some at the top level reportedly unhappy with president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s unilateral decisions.
Hadi had submitted his own list of nominees for the MB post to the Selangor palace, containing only PAS candidates — state executive councillors Iskandar Abdul Samad, Dr Yunus Hairi and Sallehen Mukhyi — and this was done without the knowledge of other PAS leaders within the central committee, according to sources familiar with the matter.
When the rest of PAS found out about Hadi’s nomination, PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali scrambled to send in a second letter to the palace, this time containing two nominees from PKR — Dr Idris Ahmad and Yaakob Sapari and PAS’ Iskandar.
PAS broke ranks with its Pakatan Rakyat allies by excluding the coalition’s agreed-upon nominee, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. Inter-party relations aside, both PKR and DAP believe the real crisis lies with the direction Hadi is taking PAS.
“Hadi betrayed PAS. That’s the bigger story,” a senior Pakatan Rakyat leader told Malay Mail Online.
Hadi’s unilateral in decisions, such as in the MB nominee list, is expected to be discussed at the Islamist party’s annual conference later this month, said a PAS leader.
“This is a leadership crisis. Hadi is trying to assert his opinion by side-stepping the central working committee although we have never had a situation where we outvoted him,” the PAS source, a central working committee member told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
“Now he’s avoiding the central committee, enforcing decisions by the Ulama Council instead,” the source added .
The party’s central leadership decided twice in August to nominate both Dr Wan Azizah and PKR deputy president Azmin Ali as candidates for the Selangor MB post.
Adding to the concerns of Hadi’s leadership is the emergence of an “extremist”, pro-Malay rights group within PAS who have allegedly influenced Hadi’s decisions in major party decisions over the last several weeks.
“It is not as clear cut as the issue of ulamas versus progressives in PAS. These are people who claim to be supporters of the ulama wing, but they are all new faces who have only recently been in the limelight.
“They seem to be having an influence now, (their) propaganda is being accepted by Hadi…. added the PAS leader, referring to the two Selangor PAS assemblymen who had defied party orders and signed statutory declarations in support of Dr Wan Azizah as the new state mentri besar.
“These are the ones who stress on the ideals of ‘ketuanan Melayu’ (Malay supremacy),” the source said.
Yesterday, PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu said he was unaware that the party had submitted its own candidate to be considered for the Selangor mentri besar post.
The PAS deputy president also said he was unaware of reports stating that the party had not submitted Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Azmin Ali’s name as its MB candidates after all.
Other news reports, Mohamad said, quoted Mustafa as confirming that a PAS state executive councillor had been nominated as a candidate.
Mohamad did not deny the validity of the two reports, but said that this latest information was not conveyed to the PAS central working committee.
“We, the PAS central working committee, do not know of this new name because it was not decided in the PAS working committee meeting which handles the daily affairs and strategies of the party,” the PAS leader had said.
The DAP and PKR have been steadfast in their decision to nominate only PKR president Dr Wan Azizah for the post, despite a royal order from the Selangor sultan asking the three PR parties to nominate more than two names each.
