‘Malay unity bid will fizzle out’

A big majority of PAS leaders are not interested, says PAS Supporters Club’s Hu.

KOTA BARU: Only five of the 30-member PAS central leadership has shown interest in the Malay unity talks proposed by Umno, according to a senior party leader.

“The proposal is not likely to go anywhere,” PAS Supporters Club adviser Hu Pang Chaw told FMT today.

“Only a few members of the central working committee (CWC) have spoken about it with any eagerness. I know of five. There may be one or two more, but the total is definitely fewer than eight.”

He said most of the five came from the Syura Council.

All 10 members of the council are religious scholars. They form part of the CWC.

Hu believes that most of the proponents of PAS-Umno talks were motivated more by the desire for political support than by any attachment to a nationalist or religious ideology.

He pointed out that both PAS and Umno would hold party elections soon. “And there is nothing grander in politics that to unite one’s community.”

The proposal was on the backburner for a couple of years until it was revived soon after the recent general election. Most of the politicians who have been making public statements about it come from Umno.

The only noteworthy PAS figure advocating it is Nasharuddin Mat Isa, a former deputy president of the party whom most observers now dismiss as an exile in political wilderness.

Pakatan Rakyat supporters who are wary of Umno’ intentions are likely to welcome Hu’s statement.

However, according to sources, not all is well in PAS. They say the leadership is divided over the extent of support the party should lend to the Black 505 rallies helmed by opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim.

Most of those preaching caution about the rallies come from Kelantan PAS. They include Menteri Besar Ahmad Yakob, who has said that the party needed to move on and concentrate on the effort to oust Umno in the 14th general election.

PAS insiders have told FMT that the rift between the conservative and the liberal-leaning factions of the party had become wider as the party heads for internal elections this year. They expect open clashes between the two groups in the months to come.

There is talk that the liberals would pressure their poster boy, Husam Musa, to contest for the post of party president.

Husam, who is much respected as a competent economist with deep religious knowledge, is currently one of the party’s vice presidents.