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Saturday, September 20, 2014

The Selangor menteri besar’s post once again splits PAS

PAS delegates react to a speech during the 60th PAS muktamar in Johor. The Selangor menteri besar issue has caused a rift in the Islamist party. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, September 20, 2014.PAS delegates react to a speech during the 60th PAS muktamar in Johor. The Selangor menteri besar issue has caused a rift in the Islamist party. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, September 20, 2014.
Just when it looked as if they were starting to kiss and make up, the rival factions in PAS are going at each other again over the Selangor menteri besar’s post.
It points to the fact that despite what its leaders may outwardly hope, the rift in the country’s second largest party – between conservatives and progressives – may be too deep to heal.
If its leadership cannot forge an understanding between the factions today, the fractures in PAS will impair the running of Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) administration in Selangor and its ability to mount an effective campaign for federal power.
When the assembly resumed debates on the president’s speech yesterday morning, things started smoothly enough.
The call by Perlis delegate Wan Kharizal Wan Khazim for an emergency motion for the party to reject the menteri besar’s post went down with barely any argument from the floor.
But later in the afternoon when PAS Youth delegate Mohd Sany Abdullah tried to get his colleagues to support a similar declaration to officially reject the menteri besar’s post, he was booed.
Grassroots leaders at the back of the hall weren’t buying Mohd Sany’s argument that PAS had to reject the post because the party had to keep its promise to coalition partner PKR.
Mohd Sany told The Malaysian Insider after the assembly that he had wanted to explain his point further to delegates but decided against it when he saw the passions that had been inflamed.
And as if to show that the jeers Mohd Sany got were not a fluke, the crowd cheered loudly for the speaker that came after him, Mokhtar Senik.
Mokhtar, a spokesman from the party’s influential Muslim scholars wing, exhorted the party to do the opposite – to accept whoever the Selangor Sultan wants as the next menteri besar even if the person is from PAS.
One Johor PAS delegate felt surprised as to how emotional the crowd got over Mohd Sany’s proposal.
“It’s going to be a long road to reconciliation,” said the delegate who requested anonymity.
Another PAS activist, from Negri Sembilan, was not as surprised by the stir Mohd Sany caused, but like his Johor compatriot, was just as worried about what it meant.
Both also agreed on the same reason why they think opinions have become so divided over the menteri besar issue: anger at PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
There is a perception in PAS that Anwar’s machinations and the move to replace the popular Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim had triggered the crisis in PAS between its factions.
It has been publicly known that PAS had been openly critical of the Kajang move – the PKR initiative to trigger a by-election in July to install Anwar as a future Menteri Besar.
PAS leaders at the time had felt that the move was a waste of public funds.
So, according to this logic, PAS’s fractures started because different factions in the party quarrelled over how to accept and support a scheme which they were against from the very beginning.
And now that the Selangor Sultan could probably choose a menteri besar from PAS, some members are welcoming it as a way to teach Anwar a lesson, said the Johor PAS delegate who requested anonymity.
Mohd Sany, the PAS Youth delegate, has another view.
“For many (in PAS) it’s an opportunity to finally solve a problem. To them, it would be great to show that it is PAS that in the end solves a problem that was started by someone else.”
A PAS delegate from Selangor also said members were uncomfortable rejecting the Selangor ruler's choice as PAS would then be seen as being disloyal to the sultan.
Whatever the grassroots reasons for wanting the menteri besar’s post, said PAS central committee member Hanipa Maidin, the party could not base this decision purely on grassroots sentiments.
“We made a promise to PKR and it would be against Islamic principles to break that promise.”
Hanifa admitted that the debate around the MB’s post was clouded with sentiment but there were facts that could not be ignored.
“If we do not get the support of the majority in the assembly, we won’t be able to govern anyway. This is something that we must accept.”
- TMI

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