Hadi’s tell all turns allies into adversaries
He has in effect closed the channels to any reconciliation with Pakatan partners.
Ishmael Lim, Free Malaysia Today
At a PAS meeting in Marang, Terengganu, President Abdul Hadi Awang laid bare the events that led to the Kajang Move and the subsequent attempt at removing Khalid Ibrahim from the Selangor Menteri Besar’s position. (SEE VIDEO HERE).
He recounted the inquiry held by a Pakatan Rakyat leaders’ tribunal which sought answers from Khalid on the issues now common knowledge to all, and how the members were satisfied with Khalid’s explanations and even concluded that Khalid needed help to resolve those issues.
The tribunal consisted of three senior leaders each from PAS, DAP and PKR.
Hadi clarified that PAS never favoured the Kajang Move that began with the shock resignation of assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh too soon after GE13, but cooperated anyway in the campaign to get Wan Azizah elected.
He said that for newcomers to PAS, the events of the last few days may be disorienting and cause uneasiness but assured them that it was a minor glitch in the big picture of PAS’s survivability. Citing past crises when notable leaders had left PAS to form splinter groups, he pointed out that the mother party still stood strong to this day.
He reiterated that the Selangor issue was never really a PAS problem but one created by someone else, and yet PAS shouldered the burden as best as it could.
As seen in the Terengganukini web video, Hadi fielded questions from the audience. Chief among those were queries about PAS’s current status in PR, why Hadi had sent in three nominees against the wishes of coalition partners DAP and PKR, and if there was truth in rumours that elements in PAS were trying to establish a splinter group called PASMA.
Hadi answered the first query by affirming that PAS was still within the PR coalition. To the second question, his reply was, “The Sultan asked for more than two and PAS easily understood that.” On PASMA, he said that splinter groups had been formed before in the past and that anyone was free to exercise his democratic right to do so.
His answers were simple but carried in fine form and his justifications were backed with numerous scriptural references, as is the habit of men of the cloth.
Surely the seasoned politician in Hadi was covering all his bases when he repeated that PAS was still within PR while on the other hand preparing the members for the eventuality of an exit with his references to how PAS had stood the test of time and was unshaken by larger crises that it had gone through before. It is unclear if he was referring to a PAS exit from PR, or the exodus of PAS leaders to form PASMA, or both.
It is hard to believe that Hadi would lie about the tribunal as verification could easily be sought from members of the tribunal themselves. The PAS president is undoubtedly an expert orator and has sold his side of the story with skill and conviction. His greatest defence has been his seemingly consistent position against the Kajang Move and the attempted ouster of Khalid, which he has argued was the principled and Islamic position for PAS to take.
One only wonders if it was consistency or personal discretion that dictated the decision to pick a PAS candidate for the third nominee, or if Hadi had used a different scale to measure PAS’s covenant with PKR and DAP with regard to who has dibs on the Selangor top job.
With the moderates setting up a new party, it is reasonable to assume that the two mavericks who sided early with Wan Azizah would be counted in, leaving PAS with 13 seats. It can’t form a “unity government” with Umno’s 12 assemblyman because the numbers still put them in the minority in a state assembly of 56.
