TSUNAMI WIPES OUT BIG NAMES

PAS members are still coming to terms with the massive sweep by the pro-ulama group but the reality is that the party is set to put the religion upfront and centre from now on.

Joceline Tan, The Star

IT was the morning after the “ulama tsunami” and many in PAS were still trying to absorb what had happened.

Even the winners were amazed at their near perfect victory. The losers, many of whom were lumped with the professionals group, were equally amazed but in a less positive way.

The normally garrulous Mohamad Sabu was, for once, at a loss for words after losing badly to Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, the new No. 2. When pressed by reporters for a reaction, he said he accepted the result but was “puzzled”.

The incumbent deputy president was probably still in a state of shock after getting only 24% of the votes.

It was quite a humiliating defeat and, on hindsight, he had it coming. He had failed to defend his own party leader and instead defended those who attacked his party.

Mat Sabu’s popularity outside the party had failed to translate into votes inside the party and his political future is now in question.

If there is a lesson to be learnt from the outcome of the PAS election, it is that you cannot expect support from party members if you are perceived as being less than loyal to your own party.

You cannot act deaf and dumb when others attack your party president. Worse, you cannot, like Sepang MP Hanipa Maidin, join in the attacks.

In 2013, Hanipa got the third highest votes in the central committee but, this time, he was shown the door together with Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad who was regarded as his “guru”.

“DAP is partly to blame for what happened to this group. The things that DAP said about our president, it was nonsense to many of us. Our members could not stand it,” said an aide to PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

The other shocker about the election result was the way delegates booted out big names, including MPs and assemblymen, without a second thought.

Former Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin was also out in the cold, although he came in No. 4 in the central committee in the 2013 election.

Big personalities and positions seemed to matter less to the delegates than defending their Tuan Guru and Hadi.

The “ulama tsunami” also wiped out the so-called “Anwaristas”, the group which joined PAS after the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

They rose up in PAS over the last 15 years and tried to change the party’s image and direction. But the journey has ended for them just as it has ended for Anwar.

The professionals have blamed their loss on the “menu voting” employed by the pro-ulama. But there is no money politics in play and no one can force the delegates to follow the menu unless they support the line-up.

The professionals have given outsiders the impression that they represent the thinking in PAS but the reality is that they have only about 30% support in the party.

At least Malaysians now have the correct picture of what PAS is largely about – Islam, ulama leadership and hudud law.

The new central committee is dominated by people who are on the same page as Hadi. The new central leadership line-up is also stacked with religious scholars and Hadi is planning to balance things by filling the appointed positions with professionals.

Hadi was apparently just as surprised as everyone else about the sweeping victory by the pro-ulama group. When a top aide informed Hadi of the result last evening, he was quite incredulous and had asked the aide to check again.

When the results were announced yesterday and Hadi was named as the winner, he had looked down, his lips had moved silently in thanksgiving and he blinked several times as though to hold back tears. It was quite an emotional moment for him.

Hadi has been quite stressed by the last few months of internal infighting. However, it was nothing compared to the stress he went through during the Selangor Mentri Besar crisis.

Some in the professionals camp have claimed that Hadi changed after a heart attack when in Istanbul. They said he became less accommodating and has become difficult to reason with. They think the heart attack affected him psychologically.

His heart had stopped and it is a miracle that he is still alive and going strong. Near-death experiences do tend to change people. He changed but not in the way the professionals claimed.

Hadi is a God-fearing man and he sees his near-death experience as a signal from Allah to do the right thing for the party and that is to take the party back on the Islamic path.

He was given a new lease of life and he wants to make full use of it. He feels that too many compromises have been made and it is time to place the religion upfront and centre again in the party.

It was the same for the late Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat who had given his heartfelt support to his successor’s move to implement hudud law in Kelantan. Political expediency had prevented him from doing it when he was the Mentri Besar and he gave his unreserved blessings.

Some have claimed that the PAS election would have turned out differently if Nik Aziz was still alive.

They are wrong. Nik Aziz would have stood by Hadi and defended him to the hilt and the ulama tsunami would have been even bigger.