Nik Aziz unlikely to get his way

Nik Aziz unlikely to get his way

Nik Aziz’s dramatic call for reforms has put PAS between a rock and a hard place. — file pic

By Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR Oct 27 — PAS spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat may have the party rank-and-file behind him in his opposition to PAS working closer with Umno but the mood among the state power brokers and entrenched leadership is to bottle him up.

The PAS leadership network at all levels across the country is in upheaval since his spectacular outburst last Thursday, calling for an EGM to allow delegates to purge the party of “problematic leaders.”

The fact that he openly named party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, his deputy Nasaruddin Mat Isa and others like secretary general Datuk Mustafa Ali and Selangor PAS commissioner Datuk Hasan Ali indicates he is prepared to burn his bridges.

“He believes this is his final battle to ‘save’ PAS from a deadly embrace with Umno,” said a PAS state leader by telephone from Kelantan, the power base of the PAS veteran.

“He believes that PAS would be burned and wounded in any union with Umno,” he told The Malaysian Insider. “He believes Umno as a secular and nationalist party is a great danger to Islam.”

“He is particularly incensed with Nasaruddin… he cannot stand the sight of him,” the state leader said, adding that tomorrow’s central committee meeting to decide whether to agree to Nik Aziz’s request for an EGM or to reject it, would be a parting of ways for Nik Aziz.

“They will never agree to an EGM,” he said. “Nik Aziz has to come to terms with that… it is the start of the slide for him and eventual retirement.”

PAS sources said the majority of the 35 members of the central committee are against holding an EGM.

They also feel that the outburst and subsequent comments by Nik Aziz that he “does not care” whether PAS splits over the issue, has seriously damaged the party’s standing among the ummah not only in Malaysia but in the Muslim world where issues involving PAS, with its membership of 1.2 million, are widely followed.

In the Muslim world, PAS is seriously considered as a party with the potential to rule Malaysia in the Islamic way, and the major schism that Nik Aziz has sparked is seen as a setback for the party’s ambitions.

Several senior party leaders are openly against Nik Aziz, saying the leaders he sees as “problematic” were in fact elected — some without contest — by the delegates in June.

If it is a question of discipline, said veteran PAS leader Datuk Wan Abdul Muttalib Embong, it can be referred to the disciplinary committee.

He disagreed with Nik Aziz’s suggestion to allow delegates to “membuang” (discard) some leaders, adding these leaders were elected and have a mandate to manage the party.

There are rules to follow, said another PAS leader.

“We can simply throw out people we don’t like… he (Nik Aziz) is admired and respected but there is a limit even if you are the Murshidul Am (spriritual leader).”

Nik Aziz has many supporters in the central committee but they, too, are not going to back him on the EGM request. However, they will support him on the issue of not working with Umno on a unity government.

Unlike Hadi Awang and his faction who want to work with Umno to unite the ummah to advance Islam, Nik Aziz’s supporters think like him — that Umno is a “secular, nationalist evil” and working with it would be a disaster for a party based solely on Islam.

The meeting on Wednesday will be a landmark event for PAS.

Nik Aziz is attending along with all the other top leaders and clerics, and the key issue is why two Muslim political parties cannot work together to advance Islam.

For Nik Aziz, who has been against the “unity government” proposal from the beginning, the meeting is his last chance to convince his party men of the dangers they face from Umno.

source : themalaysianinsider