PAS Youth has passed a motion slamming party organ Harakah during the debates of the National PAS Youth Muktamar in Kota Bharu today.

The motion, brought by Federal Territories PAS Youth, accuses Harakah of deteriorating standards of reporting and diminishing credibility as a party organ.

A copy of the motion provided to journalists, alleged that Harakah had strayed away from its original intent for which it was created.

It expressed regret that Harakah appears to not function as an organ for the Muslim congregation and carrying its aspirations, in promoting the Islamic movement in the 21st century.

As such, it called for its revamp.

"(We) demand that the central PAS restructure the editorial makeup of Harakah so that it can interpret the true aspirations of PAS," the motion read.

It also called on the the central PAS to form a committee to filter and control the contents of Harakah and its online version Harakahdaily , to ensure that it was consistent with the party's policies.

Accused of sidelining conservatives

The party organ had in the past been accused of giving more space to progressive figures in PAS and sidelining conservative forces.

NONE Former Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Ali (right) had, prior to his sacking, accused the party organ of being dominated by people who "favour certain groups" in PAS and for not giving space to the conservative leader.

Harakah was also in December last year criticised by PAS Youth deputy chief Nik Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz for publishing a caricature criticising renegade former deputy PAS president Nasharuddin Mat Isa.

Nasharuddin, like Hasan, had criticised PAS for cooperating with its Pakatan Rakyat partners and has called on the Islamic party to quit the opposition coalition.

Federal Territories PAS Youth Chief Kamaruzaman Mohamad who tabled the motion said the party organ should not have played up the issue when the two leaders had a rift with the party.

" Harakah as an official party media should have a positive implication on the party in its writings," he said.

Mersing PAS representative Mohd Yani Abdul Rahman was the sole debater to defend Harakah , stating that journalists were akin to postmen who were doing their jobs and should not add or subtract anything from their reports.

"We could work to improve it but there is no need to blacklist them, our real enemy is Umno," he said.

Despite his defence, the motion was almost unanimously passed.

Early salvos fired

Prior to the motion being tabled, at least two PAS leaders had fired salvos at the party organ when debating a separate motion on PAS Youth chief Nasrusdin Hassan's speech which was presented last night.

Malacca PAS representative Mohd Jawhar Mat Dawi said Harakah's tendency to publish views of Shia Islam had made the party vulnerable to being accused of deviating from Sunni Islam.

"This is being used by bloggers to attack us, I hope they will stop," he said.

Meanwhile, Pahang PAS representative Fadli Ibrahim said the party organ's labeling of factions within PAS such as "liberal democrats", "bi-partisans" or "shias" was detrimental to the party.

"These are dangerous assumptions that were published by Harakah ," he said.

He also complained that Harakah was more interested in publishing stories about Pakatan Rakyat than PAS itself.

"The fact is Harakah is PAS' party organ, not the party organ for the opposition," he said.

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