A stronger PAS on its own
Irwan Muhammad Zain
June 7, 2015 18:56 MYT
June 7, 2015 18:56 MYT
With the Muktamar over, the question playing on every PAS member's mind is whether or not the party with severe ties with DAP. - Astro AWANI/Shahir Omar
It's a new dawn for PAS after the party's new leadership was elected yesterday, and they mean business.
Right after the 61st annual Muktamar (congress) ended, the 'Dream Team' of Ulamas went straight to work, knowing that the fate of the party and its direction, now rests on their shoulders.
Malaysians, especially PAS members, are looking forward to this change. The Islamic party is more than 60 years old and they feel the time has come for the party to move forward.
With the new lineup now confirmed, what remains uncertain is whether PAS will continue or severe its ties with the DAP.
If the party does indeed want to break away from DAP, why wasn't the Dewan Ulama's emergency motion not debated during congress? Instead it was submitted to the Syura Council and Central Working Committee to be studied further.
A large number of the party's representative were left disappointed. Many travelled far and wide just to hear the motion debated during the congress.
They felt that it would be better for the motion to be debated during the congress where their views on the matter could be heard. Instead, they were simply told that the motion would be submitted to the Syura Council and Central Working Committee for evaluation.
This brought about numerous questions among the delegates. Didn't the Dewan Ulama delegates think about PAS' stand in Selangor before coming up with the motion? Didn't they take into consideration the position of so-and-so's child and in-law in Selangor GLCs? Didn't they take into consideration the position of ustazs (religious teachers) in the Penang state government?
The Ulama Council should be more cautious when making decisions. Delegates felt the 'Dream Team' had made their first mistake when they submitted the emergency motion to the Syura Council and Central Working Committee to be evaluated without being debated first.
They wanted the motion to be debated and accepted by the congress because they want to see if PAS is able to stand on its own two feet without being dependent on another party.
It's been said time and again that PAS has yet to show its full potential - a warning to rival parties.
If that is indeed true, then PAS would have no problem in defeating its rivals during the upcoming General Elections.
Therefore there should be no reason why the Islamic Party need to worry about standing on its own two feet.