‘Menu voting’ in PAS election
The pro-ulama group is asking PAS delegates to vote en bloc to fill the three vice-president posts with a new team.
Joceline Tan, The Star
PAS politician Datuk Mahfuz Omar has been singing a different tune the last one week or so. Everyone in his party has noticed it.
The joke in PAS is that Mahfuz has gone from singing love songs to DAP to berating DAP leaders for their attacks on PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang.
Why the sudden change of heart? Well, it has little to do with love and everything to do with position.
Mahfuz is struggling to win one of the three vice-president posts. He has decided he needs to ride on the pro-Hadi sentiment that is blowing through PAS and to put aside his friendship with DAP.
He can sense how angry the PAS grassroots are about the way DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has attacked their president. They find the DAP leader disrespectful and incendiary.
The DAP attacks have backfired and PAS leaders perceived as too close to DAP may find themselves rejected in the party election next week.
Mahfuz, who is Pokok Sena MP, has tried all kinds of stunts to get votes including trying to champion the murderer of the Mongolian woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu.
He is up against some pretty big names, all of whom are intellectually superior to him but he has something the rest lack – showmanship.
There are six candidates vying for the three vice-president (VP) posts and it is no secret that three of them are aligned to the pro-ulama group.
The three are Idris Ahmad (Bukit Gantang MP), Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah (Deputy Kelantan Mentri Besar) and Datuk Iskandar Samad (Selangor executive councillor).
The pro-ulama group is incredibly strategic and well organised this time around. The group is being driven by the ulama young Turks who want to see PAS return to its original Islamic ideals. For that to happen, they need the ulama to win big.
Idris is a firebrand ulama from Perak with a fierce oratory style. When he is in his element, it feels like the room is on fire and the roof is about to come down.
He secured the most number of nominations, something in the region of about 106 nominations out of 130 divisions that sent in names for the VP posts.
The former university lecturer’s ratings have always been high and he topped the PAS central committee line-up in the last party election.
Mohd Amar and Iskandar are there on the grounds that Kelantan and Selangor, where the party is in power, must be represented among the VPs.
Mohd Amar was the last to confirm his candidature and he joked that he was waiting for a glimpse of the “anak bulan”, a reference to the sighting of the moon for the start of the fasting month.
When contacted yesterday, he said: “No campaigning for me, I am at home. All the candidates are my friends.”
Nik Amar’s profile has risen after he became the chief spokesman on the Kelantan hudud Bills.
He used to be quite media shy but has emerged as someone who speaks his mind and is able to handle the media.
Iskandar is the professional face in the pro-ulama group. He is seen as a team player and is believed to have turned down the Selangor Mentri Besar post at the height of the PKR power struggle in the state. The Palace was impressed that he showed principles instead of grabbing at power and he was conferred a Datukship by the Sultan.
His problem is that he does not have a national image. But he may make it because the word is that the pro-ulama group is asking delegates to vote en bloc or according to the “menu” going around.
Mahfuz has been lumped with what is known as the professionals group which include Salor assemblyman Datuk Husam Musa and Johor’s Salahuddin Ayub, both of whom are incumbent VPs.
Salahuddin, a third-term VP, is known for his sunny personality and diplomatic style. But his career took a dip after he lost in the last general election.
He is believed to have secured the second highest number of nominations for the VP post but has told friends that the going is tough because “the game has changed”.
Salahuddin used to receive the most nominations but has lost his “favourite son” status to Idris. He did not get a single nomination from Terengganu where the pro-ulama group has an iron grip.
His strength back then was that he was accepted by both sides but the scenario now is that you have to be with the pro-ulama group or else you are considered to be with the other side.
Salahuddin told people that he is not an “Anwarina” (the slang for those who are pro-Anwar Ibrahim) but that he is a “Tok Guru-rina” and that he supports the ulama leadership.
A big question mark hangs over the future of Husam who was the only person nominated for the posts of president, deputy president and VP.
The former rising star has been in some sort of political limbo after the death of his “godfather” Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat. He has been under attack in the Internet and accused of backing Pasma, the breakaway PAS group that has been branded as a traitor to the party.
There is little proof of his involvement but the allegations have stuck because he has not bothered to defend himself.
In the meantime, those in the professionals group wish that DAP leaders would just shut up because every time they attack Hadi, more votes swing to the pro-ulama group.
