NO WONDER 'TALIBANISM' IS RISING: Umno’s black hand behind rise of Pas ulama EXPOSED

GEORGE TOWN - Defeated PAS leader Mohamad Sabu has revealed Umno’s black hand in the recent PAS party elections, which saw the defeat of progressive and professional leaders and a resurgence of the ulama.

Umno organs had campaigned relentlessly for the ulama faction and ignored the progressives, Mat Sabu said today in a media interview.

He said the extensive coverage of the ulama faction by Utusan Malaysia, TV3 and Bernama was part of the Umno strategy to weaken the party as a political rival for the votes of the Malay heartland.

The defeat of the progressives would give BN and Umno a new lease on life, he said, because PAS would no longer be able to garner votes from non-Muslims or pro-Pakatan supporters.

This was the reason for Umno’s backing of the ulama faction and the defeat of the progressives, who had been seen to be favourable towards co-operation with their partners in Pakatan Rakyat.

“If Umno wanted to weaken PAS, they were absolutely on the right track and are successful,” he said in an interview with Malaysiakini.

The campaign had led to the ouster of “active and well-known leaders” who had been often invited to ceramahs, forums, to events in churches, organised by non-Muslims or by Pakatan Rakyat, he said.

Umno had been successful in helping the ulama faction’s campaign for hudud criminal penalties in Kelantan. “All those who glamorised hudud won. We can see how successful Umno has been in its strategy to weaken PAS,” he said.

The PAS campaign for hudud led to divisions with the DAP, which declared it was severing relationships with PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang. In a tit for tat move, the ulama faction at the PAS general assembly tabled a motion for PAS to end ties with the DAP.

The motion was adopted without debate. Although the motion was yet to be ratified by the PAS supreme decision-making body, the Shura Council, the DAP has interpreted the motion as conclusive and unilaterally declared an end to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

On Wednesday, opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, head of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, said the coalition no longer functioned formally in the wake of the DAP’s declaration and the PAS motion earlier this month.

Mat Sabu lamented that PAS leaders continued to be receptive to Umno’s wiles despite being tricked many times before. “In Islam, it is said, don’t be bitten twice by the same snake, but we allowed ourselves to be bitten again and again, this is what breaks my heart” he was quoted as saying.

He was appalled at Hadi expressing support for Prime Minister and Umno president Najib Razak at the height of attacks on him by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“How can we give such politicians a new lease of life again and again. I really don’t understand,” he said, according to Malaysiakini. - FMT