Uncertain road ahead for PAS

The search for a new spiritual leader is the least of the worries for the party, which is at a political crossroads and unsure whether it can hold on to its previous electoral success.

Joceline Tan, The Star

THE news of Datuk Seri Hadi Awang being admitted to the National Heart Institute (IJN) last Saturday sent jitters through PAS.

Hadi, 69, had been unwell several days before his hospital stay. It was his low blood pressure, but the PAS president insisted on going ahead with his usual Friday morning lecture at the Rusila mosque, which is a short walk from his house.

The weekly lecture usually goes on for two hours but he had to stop after about an hour.

He took a brief rest after Friday prayers before pushing on to Kemaman for a party programme. His aides sent him to the Kemaman Hospital that evening and he was admitted to IJN a day later.

PAS officials insisted he was “resting” in IJN, but Hadi’s status and age mean every hospital stay is bound to make the news.

He was discharged on Thursday morning and ordered to rest at home for a week. An aide said his low blood pressure was caused by high levels of potassium in his blood but that “everything is back to normal”.

The health scare was blamed on Hadi’s hectic schedule.

It has also been an emotional time for Hadi and this was obvious during the prayer session at the Shah Alam mosque for the party’s Mursyidul Am (spiritual leader) Datuk Dr Haron Din, who died in a San Francisco hospital last month.

Dr Haron’s grandson, a young and handsome ulama who led the funeral prayers, wept at the end of it and an equally teary-eyed Hadi wrapped his arms around the younger man and whispered words of comfort in his ear.

Hadi has become a rare commodity in PAS with the passing of one prominent Tok Guru after another – Dr Haron, Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat and Datuk Harun Taib.

The party has yet to decide on a new Mursyidul Am to head the powerful Syura Council. The Malay papers have been going on about who is likely to fill the post.

There are candidates but no obvious choice unlike when the first Mursyidul Am, Yusof Rawa, died in 2000 – back then, Nik Aziz was the bespoke successor.

Some say it is a sign that the era of the great Tok Gurus is coming to an end in PAS and Hadi could be the last of the greats.

Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob, who is the deputy Mursyidul Am, has declined the post, saying he needs to focus on Kelantan.

Ahmad, or Mat Yakob as he is known, is terribly down to earth. He still cycles around his kampung to check on his constituents. He was hospitalised several months ago for a blood clot in the head and he knows that he is not exactly Mursyidul Am material.

The Syura Council is the highest advisory body in the party and whoever leads the council is expected to be a leading Islamic scholar and highly knowledgeable because the council has an over-riding say on major policies and decisions in the party.

The next Mursyidul Am has to be appointed from among the 17 or so members of the Syura Council.

Some say there is no urgency to fill the post, while others imply that the council is divided between Mat Yakob and another ulama, Datuk Dr Mahfodz Mohamed, who is the Dewan Ulama chief.

Dr Mahfodz used to be a theology professor in Universiti Malaya. He was also the founding imam of the Mujahiddeen mosque in Damansara Utama where even the pro-Umno mosque-goers speak well of him, describing him as a level-headed man and a good community leader.

He did his PhD in the United Kingdom and is one of those ulama who has a broad view of the world while holding fast to the fundamental beliefs of Islam.

He returned to Johor after retiring to set up a religious school in his kampung in Bukit Gambir.

The Mujahiddeen mosque made waves in the 1980s as the first mosque on the west coast to invite Hadi to give religious lectures. Back then, he had just returned from his studies in the Middle East, bringing with him a revolutionary brand of Islam and a fiery oratory that appealed to young Muslims.

Roslan Shahir, who would later become Hadi’s press secretary, would make a beeline to the packed mosque when Hadi was in town.

“The two of them have different styles but they go back a long way. They have a shared history,” said Roslan of Dr Mahfodz and Hadi.

If Dr Mahfodz gets the job, he will be the first Mursyidul Am who can speak good English. Now 72, he walks about with the aid of a walking stick, but he is probably healthier than his two previous predecessors and his party president.

The Mursyidul Am issue is quite sensitive for some in PAS, and a pro-DAP news portal came under fire for naming Hadi for the post.

The PAS research centre accused the news portal of serving a DAP/Amanah agenda to get rid of Hadi as PAS president by making him the Mursyidul Am.

The circle around Hadi is very protective of him and they intend to see him remain as president of PAS for as long as his health permits. This loyal circle regards DAP and Amanah as mortal enemies who are out to undermine Hadi.

Realistically speaking, Hadi, with his temperament and scholarship, is the perfect candidate for the Mursyidul Am post – when the time comes, of course.

The deaths of two Mursyidul Am within two years has only added to the tumultuous time that PAS has been through in the last few years.

The 2015 party election saw the party split into two and sparked off a running war between PAS and Amanah.

An epic clash between PAS and Amanah lies ahead because the two parties are eyeing the same seats in the general election.

There is no denying that in states like Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Johor, the traditional PAS base is split between PAS and Amanah supporters.

The most worrisome thing is the flailing political interest. The days of mammoth ceramah crowds are over and these days, even big stars like Hadi can draw only about 2,000 people at most, even in Kota Baru.

PAS has had to resort to enlisting the popular Ustaz Azhar Idrus from Terengganu to help bring in the crowds. The religious speaker, who sports a bushy black beard, is known for his ability to combine religious advice with his unique brand of wit and jokes, and has an avid following among young Muslims.

The Malay political landscape has never been this fluid, especially with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia in the fray.

PAS is at a political crossroads. It is unclear whether the party will be able to hold on to the seats that it won in 2013.

It will be particularly messy in Selangor, where the ruling state coalition will be fighting Barisan Nasional as well as among themselves. Even Kelantan is not as secure as before for PAS. Anything can happen if there are multi-corner fights.

A Muslim activist who has lived in Kota Baru all his life joked that he used to be known as a “UFO” (unknown flying object) as he had never voted. He was considered weird and his friends would preach to him that it was a religious duty to vote.

“Now, when I go to the coffeeshop, people tell they are fed-up, they don’t feel like voting in the general election. I’m no longer the only UFO, I’m not weird anymore,” he said.

His reading is that many Kelantanese who live and work outside the state may not bother to return to vote. The political fatigue has reached the rural areas.

For instance, the rebel Salor assemblyman Datuk Husam Musa used to be a big star in Kelantan, but there was only a ripple of interest when he finally quit PAS for Amanah last month.

PAS politicians are now talking about house-to-house campaigns – if the voters will not come to their ceramah, they will go to the voters.

Despite the jitters every time Hadi is unwell, the PAS succession line has never been clearer.

The ulama class in the party used to have nightmares when Mohamad Sabu was their deputy president. They were terrified that he would be up there if anything happened to Hadi.

The nightmare is over. The current No. 2, Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, is an ulama figure who is seen as a worthy successor. He is 56, healthy and commands respect.

Despite the passing of their top ulama leaders and the struggle to identify the next Mursyidul Am, PAS is still very much a Malay party to watch.

It has a huge cache of young and committed professionals and religious scholars who will shape the future of the party and perhaps even the country.