Efforts to block Mat Sabu for Pendang seat fail

With potential candidates clamouring for seats as signs of the general election loom, it is learnt that several top Kedah PAS leaders have tried to prevent party deputy president Mohamad Sabu from being named as candidate for the Pendang parliamentary seat.

The Pendang PAS division committee is said to have offered Mohamad, who is popularly known as Mat Sabu, to contest the seat, but its decision is said to have caused uneasiness among some in the state leadership.

According to sources close to Pendang PAS, they want Mat Sabu to contest there while the incumbent MP, Dr Hayati Othman, will contest in the state seat of Tokai, which is within the Pendang parliamentary constituency.

Those opposed to the move are said to want the present Tokai assemblyperson and state exco member Mohamad Taulan Rasul, who is also Pendang division chief, to be retained in the Tokai seat.

Sources within PAS Pendang said the selection of Mat Sabu to contest in Pendang was supported by the majority of 157 branches there.

However, some in the division committee said the opposition came up after the circulation of a letter calling on the division to retain Hayati and Taulan in their respective posts.

It is understood that this call has not caught on, and the division is said to be remaining firm in wanting Mat Sabu to contest the Pendang parliamentary seat and that it does not want to prolong the issue further.

"We are not concerned about the letter and we are sticking to our earlier decision," a senior member of the division, who did not want to be named, said, adding that the division did not know who prepared the letter.

Pendang has been a PAS stronghold since former president the late Fadzil Noor won the seat in 1999.

'PAS Kedah does not reject Mat Sabu' 

A source in the top PAS Kedah leadership, who also did not want to be named, said PAS Kedah "does not reject" Mat Sabu, and he did not want to comment further.

"PAS Kedah does not reject Abang Mat," he said when contacted byMalaysiakini.

Malaysiakini was also informed that Mat Sabu supporters claimed that the state PAS electoral unit was the one providing the names of those wanting to contest in the next general election.

According to them, the unit has been entrusted with handling the election machinery, but not the selection of candidates, as this would be done by the state PAS liaison committee.

On efforts to sideline Mat Sabu, sources close to the PAS Pendang division claimed that these were directed at curbing the ever-popular deputy president's influence in Kedah.

The sources further said that they were worried over the spread of Shiite Islam, which they alleged Mohamad was associated with and which PAS religious leaders in the division were opposed to.

There are those who also blame supporters of Kedah Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak for the opposition to Mat Sabu, who had been vocal about wanting to see Azizan resign from his post during a recent state crisis.

However, PAS Kedah electoral director Senator Mohd Yusof Husin, when contacted, said Hayati is the best candidate as he has done his job well. However, he did not want to comment further on efforts to “cut-off” Mat Sabu and arranging candidates to contest in the seat. 

Mat Sabu himself told Malaysiakini that the PAS central leadership has not finalised on the seat that he will contest.

"I have not stated my stand on where to contest... as I may also contest in Pekan," he said, jokingly. Pekan is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's parliamentary seat

Despite his senior post in the party, Mat Sabu does not currently hold a parliamentary or state seat.