Portrait of a TROJAN HORSE: Downhill all the way now for FOOLISH Nasha!

Former PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa has come under fire for his remarks endorsing calls from UMNO leaders for PAS to quit Pakatan Rakyat on the grounds that DAP opposed Islamic 'hudud' law.

Nasha, who lost the PAS No. 2 post to Mat Sabu last year, has also been urged to clarify to the party's powerful Syura Council, of which he is a member, his recent statement to the UMNO-owned media wherein he had criticised PAS' cooperation with the DAP.

According to perplexed PAS leaders, Nasha’s statement contradicted his own remarks made at the latest PAS annual congress, wherein he had described PAS' alliance with DAP and PKR as the culmination of long-consultation amongst the PAS ulama (the party's religious scholars).

Double talk!

Actually, Nasharuddin Mat Isa is a very nice man. So nice that he managed to wangle his way to becoming Hadi Awang's trusted deputy not too long ago.

An up-and-coming character, he was seen as a young and promising leader with solid backing from his supporters and PAS members. It seemed as if nothing could go wrong, or so he and his gang thought.

Nasharuddin portrays himself as a pious politician who wants the reunification of the Malays under one flag. He was instrumental in the secret UMNO-PAS unification talks, which was vehemently condemned by Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

f the unity talks had been successful and become a reality, UMNO would not need the services of MCA and MIC anymore.

Political monopoly by the Malays

The country's two largest Malay parties would form a racial monopoly over the governance of the country. They would not even need to consult the other races, who combined together would still not be large enough to exceed the Malays, who form 55% of the country's 28 million population.

Brimming with confidence and high aspirations, Nasharuddin was then eager and impatient to climb the political ladder. And if the UMNO-PAS unification talks had succeeded, this would have been a big boost to his political career. Some whisper that UMNO had even agreed to make him deputy prime minister.

Although UMNO leaders were shocked when their 'boy' was rudely unseated by Mat Sabu during the PAS internal elections last year, it wasn’t really a surprise for those who have been watching PAS closely. It was clear to these pundits that the Islamist party regarded UMNO as the worst possible alternative and they were proven right when Mat Sabu won hands down.

It was also telling that most PAS members weren’t sad to see Nasha go and there was rejoicing in the streets after the PAS annual congress and election. Only UMNO refused to take cognizance of these tell-tale signs and continued to keep throwing out merger lures to PAS despite the sharp slap in the face.

The U-turn

Nasha's political career seems to have taken a turn for the worse since then, with accusations of him being an UMNO mole, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a turncoat and a Trojan horse growing louder by the day especially after former Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Ali was unceremoniously sacked for supporting UMNO.

Not only has Nasha been recently photographed in the company of Prime Minister Najib Razak, having obviously accompanied the UMNO president on a Mecca trip, pictures of him in the company of Hassan Ali are frequently published by the UMNO-owned media to provoke PAS.

Although Nasha was respected in the past as a religious scholar, his actions such as the current denials that he had switched loyalties and his refusal to resign from PAS has earned him the contempt of many in both PAS and UMNO.

Critics say his current actions are to force PAS to sack him, and this makes him little better than PKR turncoats such as Zulkifli Noordin and Zahrain Hisham as well as DAP's Tunku Aziz, who sought to wreak maximum damage before leaving. Such a lack of honor and personal integrity certainly leaves a huge question mark on their value as good Muslims, the critics added.

Furthermore, while Nasha was openly endorsing UMNO’s policies and criticizing his own PAS party for not being firm with the secular DAP, his own silence and reluctance to condemn BN leaders from the MCA, Gerakan and MIC who have publicly rejected hudud and making Malaysia an Islamic state only shows his hypocrisy.

“Has he forgotten that MCA president has insulted Islam before?” asked one PAS leader, referring to the Chinese-only party's Chua Soi Lek, who has made several comments deriding Muslim beliefs.

Are there any more moles and parasites in PAS?

Now that Nasha's departure from PAS is a mere formality, the question on many people’s lips is how did he rise so quickly in the Islamist party to become the deputy president in the first place? His leadership was hardly exceptional, so why did PAS delegates choose him over other more creditworthy candidates?

Something is wrong and maybe there are other moles in high positions in PAS as Hasan Ali has previously warned. Does PAS need to purge all the other moles within the party or are Hassan Ali and Nasharuddin the last ones standing?

Like General Custer, they are on shaky ground with one leg in PAS and the other in UMNO. Such behavior has annoyed and disgusted the clerics and religious conservativewithin both UMNO and PAS. It is clear to them and other Malaysians that Nasha puts his personal political ambitions ahead of Islam.

The photo of him grinning subserviently while sitting a step behind Najib was splashed all over the UMNO newspapers like Utusan and the NST. Shock was the initial reaction, which may have been Najib's intention.

But the next reaction was disgust that the UMNO elite would never change. They would always buy their way out of trouble and were so thick-skinned they did not even know what was shameful behavior..

Writing on the wall: Those who quit BN hailed as heroes BUT those who leave Pakatan scorned

Nasha has seen his political fortunes careening downhill, and if not for his claim to the Bachok parliamentary seat, he would be politically finished. But whether he will be picked to defend the Bachok seat is anyone’s guess. For sure PAS will not field him in GE-13. Would Najib? If Nasha decides to contest under the BN flag, it is a certainty, he would be defeated! Any candidate that PAS decides to field would win hands-down.

Yet it is strange that Najib, blinded by his own vanity, is unable to see this. Perhaps, he is desperate to even the score with Anwar Ibrahim, the Opposition Leader who scored a coup by successfully negotiating with several senior Sabah BN leaders to quit and join the opposition to fight for change in the impoverished east Malaysian state.

Whatever Najib's rationale, pundits are betting that this is another ill-judge move that will again boomerang on the 58-year-old Umno president. They also point out that the contrasting public response to leaders defecting from BN to Pakatan and from Pakatan to BN was the writing on the wall that the UMNO-BN should take note of.

Sabahan have reacted with joy to the news that UMNO supreme council member and Beaufort MP Lajim Ukin, Tuaran MP Wilfred Bumburing and Senator Maijol Mahap have all quit BN and will contest on a pro-Pakatan platform in the next election. The same euphoria did not greet news of Nasha's all-but-confirmed defection. Instead, the public reaction was anger and disgust at Najib's continued use of dirty politics to win at all costs.

Naive

Some of the more naive think it would be wiser for the PAS leadership to ignore Nasha rather than to sack him.

But the question is not whether PAS will leave him alone but whether he will leave PAS alone! Chances are much higher Nasha will continue to cause trouble much like Hasan Ali, Zul Noordin and Zahrain Hashim until he is sacked once and for all.

It would therefore be better that PAS bites the bullet and publicly sack Nasha, making it clear that it does not tolerate two-headed snake politics. Traitors and backstabbers should not be cosseted or feared, they should be given the boot and the biggest pair too!

Preposterous statements

Lately, Nasharuddin also criticised the PAS leadership for being silent over the stand taken by DAP chairman Karpal Singh. Branding Karpal as anti-Islam, Nasha reiterated that he will not allow any quarter to insult Islam nor will he endorse any cooperation with political parties who are fighting against Islam?”

So strange because that his been Karpal's stand from day one - decades and decades ago. Karpal is famously secular in his outlook. Why didn't Nasha raise this point in 2008 before PAS hooked up with the Pakatan. He was then at the height of his power as Hadi's deputy.

Has it come to a point that when all else fails, religion would be used to argue a point and to wriggle out of a controversy. How do we expect the electorate not to look with disdain at this type of desperate politician, or to question if he is a credible leader?

Backfiring chameleons

Sincerely, there should be a law, to forbid politicians from capitalizing on religion as political tools. Why should the country and the 'bangsa' or race get sidetracked into this type of silly argument that yields no good, but instead blocks advancement to society and to economic well-being!

Nasha should leave PAS if he truly has the conviction of his belief that PAS is not doing enough for Islam but UMNO is. If he feels that PAS’ decision to be in Pakatan is against Islamic principles, he should set the example and lead the charge out. Yet he insists he doesn't want to leave a party that he in the same breath accuses of selling out Islam.

People in PAS who gave him 'face' due to his previous high post as deputy president now know his true colors. Those who are sincere Muslims in UMNO too can see him as he is, selling out his own PAS party for the sake of political advancement. Najib too should be careful, UMNO members have just got another glimpse of his hypocrisy.

Chameleons like Nasha and his new masters are a dime a dozen in the streets. Give them enough time and they will always show their true colors in the end.

Malaysia Chronicle