Hadi Awang & The Great Divide Within PAS

(Malaysian Digest) – “RERORMS! Give youths more chances!” Those were among the many calls that can be heard from last week’s Umno General Assembly. Many people from both in and outside the party had identified the need for radical changes to be made for the party‘s political survival. However, Umno it seems isn’t alone in facing calls for reforms. Its long standing political rival, PAS seems to be going through the same situation right now. Voices from within PAS have been asking Datuk Seri Haji Abdul Hadi Awang to step down as party President, and these calls have been growing louder and louder by the day.

“There are many fault lines within Malaysian politics today. The gap between the two coalitions is one; and the gap within PAS is another,” Dr Ooi Kee Beng, the Deputy Director for the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) told Malaysian Digest recently. It is an open secret that there are two very distinctive camps in PAS, and the gap between the two is growing wider with each passing day.

An Umno-PAS Coalition

The first camp in PAS is the conservative group; these people are perceived as being uncomfortable as part of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition. They are also viewed as very reluctant of working with DAP especially.  Many from this group are seen to favour PAS and Umno working together to form a Unity-Government.

The other camp is the progressive group, who are also labelled as the ‘Liberals’, ‘Erdogans’, and ‘Anwarinas’. This group sees that PAS’ survival and future has to be secured by staying with PR. They will fight tooth and nail to ensure that any coalition with Umno does not happen. And it is from this group that the calls for Hadi to be replaced are originating from.

PasMa president Datuk Phahrolrazi Zawawi (second from left)

Fast growing discontent against the conservative camp has also led to a splinter group to be formed within PAS. Created with the intention of keeping PAS within PR, Persatuan Ummah Sejahtera (PasMa) is growing in membership. PasMa continues to expand its’ ranks despite a ban from PAS’ Shura Council on members of the Islamist party joining the group.

“There are efforts by enemies (within PAS) to split the party from PR. PasMa will expose the veiled efforts of these enemies. We have solid evidence,” said PasMa’s secretary-general Mohd Taib Ahmad. He also denied allegations that the splinter group is a parasite to PAS as well as claims that it intends to register itself as a political party.

PAS Needs A Fresh Change

PasMa member and former PAS assemblyman for Santan in Perlis, Zolkharnain Abidin recently turned up the heat on Hadi with a posting on his Facebook page. “PAS not only needs a new President, but also a President who is capable of bringing changes.”

“As long as Hadi is PAS President then Umno will always be safe,” said political blogger Abdul Rahman Abdul Talib or better known as Tulang Besi. “There is no way he can lead an organisation which can defeat Umno, especially when his speeches are still recycling ideas from the 80s,” he added.

Haji Hadi has been faced with calls from within PAS to step down as party President

Tulang Besi who writes for his blog, malaysiawaves.net, also pointed out PAS’ poor track record in elections ever since Hadi took over the top seat in 2002. “Including Kedah, PAS has lost two state governments under his leadership. It started with Terengganu during the General Election in 2004. He was extremely confident in retaining power there. But unfortunately Terengganu slipped away from PAS’ grasp. From forming a government that controlled a 2/3 majority, they were left with a mere 5 seats,” he says.

Tulang Besi who is a long standing PAS member also outlined that it was the stubbornness on the part of Hadi that led to the fall of the PAS-controlled Kedah government. “The President was informed that Ustaz Azizan Razak (the Menteri Besar at the time) was disliked and rejected not only by the Kedah people but also by PAS members. In fact some PAS members had demonstrated and rallied against Azizan’s poor leadership. Even some state Excos had protested against him. But Hadi continued to defend him,” Tulang Besi explained. “In order words, the President knew of the risk of keeping Azizan,” he added.

Lack Of Leadership?

One the major factors that irks other PR members is Hadi’s failure to attend any PR meetings for the last 20 months. What caused even greater annoyance was his response. “I don’t need to be asked. If I want to attend, I will attend,” he said recently. When asked whether he would attend the next meeting, he replied “That’s up to me on whether to attend or not.”

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng reiterated his party’s reasoning for wanting Hadi to attend the meetings, saying that the PAS leader’s absence will cause PKR and DAP to play guessing games on which decisions would be vetoed by him. “This is the reason why the DAP central executive committee will wait until Hadi is available to attend Pakatan Rakyat leadership council meetings,” Lim said.

With Hadi as PAS President, will Pakatan Rakyat be able to seize control of Putrajaya?

“Whilst PR started off as a coalition of parties comprising PAS, PKR and DAP, it is now essentially PKR, DAP and Abdul Hadi,” he said as reported in a local newspaper.  He was of course referring to when Hadi used his veto power and overturned an early PAS decision to support Dato’ Seri Wan Azizah as the Selangor Menteri Besar.

PasMa president Datuk Phahrolrazi Zawawi said that Hadi should delegate his responsibilities to his deputy if he cannot commit fully to the position. “He should entrust his deputy Mohamad Sabu if for one reason or the other he was unable to attend the council meetings.” he said.

Associate Professor Dato’ Dr. Mohammad Agus Yusoff, from UKM also commented on how the Menteri Besar saga was handled. “PAS needs to have a clear stand, and not have a one stance during PR meetings, and a different one in the media. They can have different stands and opinions (with other members of PR), but the final decision has to be clear and firm. If they keep changing their stand, the public will lose faith,” he said.

Other grouses aimed at Hadi include him accusing a PKR candidate during the previous General Election of being a drug dealer (Hadi is now being faced with a RM2 million defamation suit), abusing his power as President and causing candidate overlaps for PR in several seats, and of course how he is seen to still be a supporter of the Umno-PAS coalition.

Interesting 2015 Ahead

History shows that former PAS President Tan Sri Dato’ Mohd Asri Haji Muda refused to step down from the top position of the party despite facing enormous pressure to do so. He was eventually ousted from the post during the 1982 PAS election.

Will Hadi face the same fate, or will he survive and emerge victorious? What will a triumph for him mean for the future of PR or even more interestingly, the future of PAS and Umno? Will PasMa eventually form a new party and join PR?

With PAS due to hold its party elections next year, it will surely be an interesting time ahead for local politics.