Hadi, PAS leaders’ families split over Amanah

The formation of a PAS splinter party – Amanah – has divided many families and communities in the Islamist party’s heartland. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, September 29, 2015. 

Families and communities have split over the breakaway by PAS’s progressive faction joining Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and Islamist party’s president, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, is not spared.

The birth of the new party lost him not just thousands of PAS members but also a nephew, Miqdad Zakaria.

Miqdad was recently appointed Amanah’s Marang division chief, a move that has directly pitted him against his uncle, who is the PAS member of parliament for Marang.

Miqdad and the members of the Marang Amanah division carried out their first programme as office-bearers last week: the launching of their new office in Wakaf Dua, a mixed Malay-Chinese residential area in Marang.

“I’m doing this because I love my brothers and sisters in Islam, and I think it’s wrong for our aqidah (faith) when people propagate the impression that PAS itself is a religion,” Miqdad told The Malaysian Insider.

Amanah was formed in the wake of a split in PAS when a group of its leaders, dubbed the progressives, who were in favour of continued collaboration with opposition allies, were trounced in party elections in June.

Miqdad’s house is just 200m from Hadi’s home and the community mosque, Masjid Rusila. He has been a member of the mosque for as long as he can remember.

His recent appointment as a division chief has not gone down well with his neighbours, who have snubbed him.

“I have to go on, even though they have been doing all sorts of things to me,” he said, referring to PAS members and supporters.

“They have been boycotting me, ignoring my greetings. Twenty-four surau and mosques which have always invited me to give lectures have stopped doing so.”

The hostile reception Miqdad is facing is also partly due to Rusila’s status as a PAS stronghold.

Hadi, who has been delivering the weekly sermons in Masjid Rusila since the 1980s, recently declared Amanah party members “traitors”.

And the PAS president is not the only leader in the party to have seen his family wrenched apart over the progressives’ parting of ways.

Shura Council secretary Datuk Nik Zawawi’s younger brother, Saberi Salleh, has also pledged support for Amanah.

Saberi, who lives in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan, was one of the main opponents to PAS’s conservative leadership, working through the pro-Pakatan Rakyat pressure group PasMa, then Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) and finally, Amanah.

GHB, a splinter movement from PAS, went on to form Amanah as a platform for political cooperation with other opposition parties to form a new pact.

Amanah secretary-general Mohd Anuar Tahir said they were aware that Miqdad had joined the party despite being related Hadi.

“I am aware of his membership, but I am not sure if he is Hadi’s nephew or Hadi’s wife’s nephew.

“But it shouldn’t be an issue because they join Amanah out of their own free will,” he said.

Anuar revealed that he, too, had relatives in PAS and Umno.

“Whoever joins Amanah do so because he believes in the party.

“There are parents who join Amanah, but their children still want to remain with PAS. It’s not an issue.”

In Bachok, Kelantan, the son and grandson of a former Bachok PAS chief, the late Datuk Omar Muhamad, are also the primary movers of Amanah in the area.

Khairudin Omar, the son of the former Kelantan assembly speaker, is now Bachok Amanah chief while his son, Syahidulamri Khairudin is the Bachok Amanah Youth chief.

Amanah’s launch on September 16 saw the traditional PAS stronghold of Kelantan contribute the most members to the new party, with 8,000 from the state making up some 30,000 of those who registered at that time.

Amanah plants to recruit 100,000 members by year-end and its target is mainly PAS members.

The new party’s slogan is “Amanah sayang semua” (Amanah loves everyone).

It is, however, facing resistance from PAS, which sees them as traitors to the cause.

The party elections in June, which saw progressive PAS leaders lose their posts, were marred by slander and violence considered rare for the highly disciplined party.

PAS had also cut ties with DAP, leading to the collapse of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat pact, over various issues, including PAS’s push to implement hudud, and Hadi’s unilateral approach to decision-making.

Amanah has said it intends to work with the Chinese-majority DAP along with PKR to form a new opposition coalition ahead of the 14th general election which is due in 2018.

- TMI