Hasan: My sacking didn't follow procedure
Former Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Ali claims that his sacking by the party earlier this month went against established procedures and Islamic principles.
Former Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Ali claims that his sacking by the party earlier this month went against established procedures and Islamic principles.
“My expulsion did not follow procedures, I was not given a chance to defend myself,” he told a press conference at his house in Kuala Lumpur today.
“It was autocratic, non-democratic and deviated from Islamic principles of managing an organisation.”
Hasan maintained that there should have been an official, written accusation against him and the matter should first have been taken to the disciplinary board.
Both procedures, he claimed, never took place prior to his “autocratic” sacking.
Last week Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin spoke up for Hasan on the same matter, saying that the “absolute power” the PAS central working committee seems to wield would not have happened in Umno.
His party, Muhyiddin said, would be guided by its Islam-based democratic practices and would at least call for Hasan’s defence and take the matter to the disciplinary panel.
Hasan maintained that his expulsion had nothing to do with his differences with PAS as claimed, but was due to his opposition to the 901 rally in support of Anwar Ibrahim in relation to the sodomy verdict on Jan 9, besides pressure from PKR.
“The other differences were already discussed, solved and harmonised when I apologised during my meeting with deputy spiritual leader Haron Din, spiritual leader Nik Aziz and president Hadi Awang in Kota Baru.”
“However, when I told members, and students, not to attend the 901 rally, which is about an individual, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali got upset and told PAS to sack me. Lo and behold, that was what the party later did.
“Indeed, my stand on the 901 rally is actually aligned to Hadi’s policy of neither encouraging nor asking members to attend it.”
Hasan was expelled on Jan 8, following a surprise decision by the central working committee that deemed he had acted against the interests of the party.
PAS has explained that while the expulsion was not carried out based on normal disciplinary rules and bypassed the disciplinary body, it was sanctioned under provisions added in a 2009 amendment.
This was specifically to Article 82(9) of the constitution, which allows the central body to punish members directly in special cases and for major offences.
Letter from palace
On a related matter, Hasan confirmed that he received a letter from Istana Bukit Kayangan earlier in the morning informing him that he has been dropped as Selangor exco member in charge of Islamic affairs, Malay customs, infrastructure and public amenities.
While saying that he has been prepared for the occurrence and that he accepts the decision, he questioned the timing of the move.
“This has happened before my grace period (expires) to appeal my expulsion from PAS... I think the MB Khalid Ibrahim overlooked this when he advised the sultan.
“I must ask, why the rush? It is as if there are those who urgently want me gone."
He argued that technically he still has time to appeal his sacking from PAS. The formality would be to allow him to remain an exco member, he said, adding that he had already applied for leave from Khalid (
right
) for the grace period.
Khalid,asked about the same matter during his press conference last Friday to announce the removal of Hasan from office, had dismissed the matter, saying that as far as he was concerned, the former PAS member was no longer a state lawmaker belonging to the Islamic party.
“There are no provisions for an independent to become an exco member... This is the MB’s decision and will take effect immediately,” Khalid had said.
'Plenty of opportunities to raise qualms'
In the latest development, Harakahdaily reported that names of candidates for Hasan’s replacement had been sent to Khalid’s office at 12.30pm today.
Party secretary-general Mustafa Ali said he did so after receiving the list of names from Hadi.
According to Khalid’s tweet this morning, the Selangor exco will make the final decision during their meeting this Wednesday.
Meanwhile, PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar rejected Hasan’s claim, insisting that the latter had been given “plenty of opportunities to raise his qualms” during meetings “but he was absent and chose to use a public platform” to attack and deride the party.
Mahfuz, who was in the central working committee that sacked Hasan, added that it was “unfair” to say that PAS had acted undemocratically.
“Hasan met with the spiritual leader and his deputy in Kelantan, but after speaking to them he still kept issuing rash statements and criticising PAS publicly, despite there being internal mechanisms for his complaints,” Mahfuz told Malaysiakini .
“We just couldn’t let such things continue... so the decision was taken to expel Hasan.”
Additional reporting by S Pathmawathy
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