Hadi: Mahathir's venom shows how desperate Umno is

PAS president Hadi Awang

KUALA TERENGGANU (Harakahdaily) - PAS president Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi Awang said UMNO’s failure in improving the plight of the Malays as it had been claiming was a betrayal to the Malays, while its unjust practices, abuse of power and rampant corruption tarnished the good name of Islam which it claimed to be championing.

Hadi was rebutting former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's remark that PAS was using Islam and justifying its cooperation with non-Islamic parties such as DAP, while at the same time warning Malays that a non-Malay would helm the country should Pakatan Rakyat come to power.

Hadi said Mahathir's latest attack showed UMNO was getting desperate to stay in power, adding that this was the case whenever the race-based party was at its weakest.

“History shows that UMNO is a colonial heritage ...to weaken the Muslims,” said Hadi, who is also the Marang member of parliament.

Earlier, PAS vice president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man joined other PAS personalities in their response to Mahathir's remarks, saying it was an attempt to scare the Malays away from PR with warnings that Malays would lose their power.

Tuan Ibrahim said the people could "no longer be duped with the same rhetoric".

“The people can now evaluate how UMNO has failed to carry out the trust to govern the country and uplift the Malays. As a result, a new term ‘Umnoputra’ has emerged to show how UMNO fails to help the Malays,” he said in a statement to Harakahdaily.

He added the failure of the New Economic Policy (NEP) to uplift Malay economic life by meeting the 30 percent quota clearly illustrated how UMNO had failed the Malays.

'UMNO once had more seats than Gerakan in Penang'

On Malays in Penang, Tuan Ibrahim (left) charged that in trying to cover their failure during BN-Gerakan’s administration, UMNO now tried to portray that their plight was due to the present state government led by Lim Guan Eng.

“The fact is, UMNO once had actually more seats than Gerakan,” he reminded.

Tuan Ibrahim said Malays had started to become close to PAS following UMNO’s failure to protect them, adding that PAS's principles were based on Islam and not Malay nationalism so that justice can be served.

“PR is now seen as the defender of the marginalised group,” said Tuan Ibrahim, who is also PAS's state commissioner for Pahang.

Giving an example, he cited oil revenues which failed to improve the living standards of the country's poorest citizens in Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan and Terengganu.

“Just imagine that if 20% oil royalty was returned to the states with the poorest citizens in the country by average – namely Sabah, Sarawak, Kelantan and Terengganu – without any corruption and power abuse, these rural states whose people have been neglected for 50 years can be improved and we shall see the emergence of a great country,” stated Tuan Ibrahim.

On a lighter note responding to Mahathir’s latest criticism, Tuan Ibrahim recalled how the late PAS president Ustaz Fadzil Noor would pray for long life for Mahathir "so that he could see the destruction and repercussion to the country because of his administration".