PAS for Permatang Pauh?

By MT Webmaster Last updated Feb 24, 2015

KTemoc Konsiders

In Malaysiakini’s For P Pauh polls, PKR should break mould the author Terence Netto suggested that PKR do what Dr Mahathir did for Anwar Ibrahim in 1982 when he parachuted AI into Permatang Pauh instead of nominating another more senior candidate from the party.

Terence Netto penned: The then-prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was shaping to dissolve Parliament, having been in office for nine months after succeeding retired Hussein Onn the previous July. Requiring as a newly-installed PM a fresh mandate from the people, Mahathir caused a huge surprise by reaching across the political divide to induct Anwar Ibrahim, then Abim president and nascent leader of the Malaysian opposition, into Umno.

The sensation of that induction had barely time to recede when Anwar was announced as the party’s candidate to wrest the Permatang Pauh seat, held by PAS, in the polls scheduled for late April.

Until the announcement of his joining Umno was made, Anwar had been more likely to become president of PAS upon incumbent Mohd Asri Muda’s retirement although he did not hold a position in the party and neither was he a member.

But by doing so, Dr Mahathir effectively chopped off from PAS a potential and dangerous leader who could have wrecked severe political damage on UMNO, wakakaka.

And it must be said Dr M would not have succeeded in his brilliant strategic move if he did not have the willing cooperation of Anwar Ibrahim, who was then leader of ABIM and slated to be PAS President by former PAS President Fadzil Noor who loved Anwar.

Dr M had much to thank for in Anwar being (then) more than willing, enthusiastic and wholehearted in wanting to join UMNO …….. of course with the intention to change UMNO from within, but which he (Anwar) forgot to do so during the entire 16 years he was in UMNO and roosting at its exclusive top echelon of power, wakakaka.Netto has suggested a similar, well almost similar Mahathir-ish strategy, where ….. PKR, with DAP support, can break new ground by loaning Permatang Pauh to PAS and fielding its vice-president Husam Musa in the upcoming by-election for the seat vacated by a convicted Anwar.

Husam is under interdiction by the assertive ulamak wing of his party which seems determined to weed out progressives like him.This is a retrograde move by the ulamak, a move reflective of a mind-set that prefers ideology over reality, essence over existence.If the blood-thirsty 20th century taught humankind anything it is that the irruption of ideology into political realities is the recipe for much political woe.

But the religious inebriates of PAS contend they are only going about God’s business which incidentally is what the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq say they are doing.

So, according to Netto, by saving Husam Musa from PAS ulama, Pakatan stands a better chance of surviving from the centrifugal intent of those PAS priesthood caste, yes, who seem bent on PAS going its separate way from Pakatan.

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