PAS reels as motion to cut ties with DAP backfires

A PAS flag at the venue of the party's muktamar in Kuala Selangor yesterday. Selangor PAS leaders warn party leadership against its motion to sever ties with DAP. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Nazir Sufari, June 7, 2015.

PAS is now learning that “you can’t ask for a divorce and yet still expect to live in the same house”, said an observer as the Islamist party reels from the impact of wanting to cut ties with Pakatan Rakyat (PR) ally DAP.

Selangor PAS leaders, in particular, scrambled to warn party bosses against going through with the motion to sever ties with DAP, which the leadership forced through the assembly without debate, much to the anger of some delegates.

The consequences of such a motion were felt soon after news broke that it had been adopted without debate, when Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said he would readily accept the resignations of PAS representatives in the state government and its agencies.

Lim said he believed they would have "no choice but to resign" following the motion's approval as working under him would be untenable. Lim is also DAP secretary-general.

PAS leaders quickly moved into damage control mode.

Secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali said the motion, though adopted, was not a final decision, and the matter still had to be decided by the Shura council comprising cleric leaders, and the party's central committee.

But Selangor PAS leaders are worried that if the party goes ahead with the wishes of its conservative ulama wing to implement the motion, the state government would fall.

PAS has 15 out of PR's 43 seats in the 56-seat legislature, and three assemblymen who are excos in the state government.

The whole episode is a bad sign of how the new conservative leadership wants to manage PAS and how it functions in the PR opposition pact.

The first sign that its rhetoric had consequences was when ousted party deputy president Mohamad Sabu said he would resign from all his posts in the Penang government.

He also mocked the leadership and the motion to reject DAP, saying that PAS could surely survive alone.

This was shortly after the assembly or muktamar in Kuala Selangor was made aware yesterday of Lim's statement about PAS representatives in his state government.

After Mohamad’s speech, Selangor PAS leader Sallehin Mukhyi took to the podium and made an impassioned speech of how hand-in-glove PAS works with DAP and PKR in the Selangor government, which has been described as the model of how PR wants to govern Malaysia one day.

Another Selangor PAS leader, Datuk Iskandar Abdul Samad also took pains to convince reporters that it was business as usual in Selangor and that PAS was not leaving the state administration.

“The motion does not represent the final view of PAS. I know the leadership is fair and will listen to all views and I will tell them how good the cooperation is in Selangor,” said Iskandar, who was voted in as a vice-president at the muktamar.

The motion to cut ties with DAP was first passed by the party’s Muslim scholar’s wing on Wednesday. It was in response to DAP’s decision in March to cut ties with president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and for opposing hudud under the Kelantan Shariah Enactment.

The motion was then adopted by the whole assembly without debate, a decision made by senior leaders that was heavily criticised by delegates.

This gives the impression that all of PAS’s grassroots agreed to it.

Some of the ulama, who agreed to the motion and who were belligerent towards the DAP clammed up when asked about its implications, especially after Lim's statement.

“I leave it to the Shura council to decide,” said Nasrudin Hassan, a Dewan Ulama leader when approached by reporters after the assembly yesterday.

Nasrudin had even made a fiery speech on Friday about how the motion was a “slap on the face” for DAP.

Others were surprised by Lim’s statement. Dewan Ulama chief Datuk Mahfodz Mohamad chastised the Penang chief minister for being hasty in suggesting that PAS representatives in the state government resign.

But Selangor DAP leader Charles Santiago has countered that it is PAS's new leadership that had failed to think clearly when it forced the motion through the assembly.

“It’s not the way to manage relations and now it’s back-firing,” said Santiago, adding that it was an ominous sign about how the conservatives wanted to manage the party.

“If this is what they want, then all PAS members should resign their posts in Selangor. You cannot have your cake and eat it too."

- TMI