PAS has formed a 10-member special committee headed by its vice president Dr Hassan Ali to formulate proper political strategies and programmes to ensure better performance in the next elections.

When contacted, Hassan said the committee was formed during the party's central working committee (CWC) meeting last Monday, where members endorsed the election post-mortem report which identified the causes behind PAS' massive loss in the recent general elections.

He said the new committee has the task to study the recommendations proposed in the report which was prepared by a another committee headed by vice-president Mustafa Ali.

"We target to complete our work in the next couple of months. I think it's a fair time frame to prepare a proper plan of actions and strategies. The committee will have its first meeting on Nov 8 because I don't want to delay the task. If possible I hope we could have everything ready before the two-month dateline," he added.

Hassan said the recommendations offered in the report have very broad frameworks which must be transformed into specific actions.

"Basically we have to turn the recommendations into something that can be implemented. The committee is also given the duty to monitor the effectiveness of the implementations and set a target time frame for each and every programme or project," he added.

Confidential report

He said the committee already has a rough plan to start on but added that he could not reveal it at this stage since the 186-page post-mortem report has been classified as confidential by the party.

"Only limited copies were made and given to each CWC member. We are not supposed to divulge the contents of the report to the media at the point," said Hasan, who also declined to comment on the reasons behind the gag order.

He said part of the report will be revealed to party delegates attending the closed-door munaqasyah (special assembly) scheduled for Dec 18-19 at the PAS headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Hasan also expressed his confidence that the committee would be able to live up to the party's expectations, but admitted that the task is not without challenges.

"Formulating ideas is easy but making them practical is not. That is our main aim: to make all our programmes and plans practical for the party to carry out," he said.

As most of the recommendations involve some kind of reformation and change, he said another challenge would be to ensure that the plans would not cause any disharmony among leaders and members.

"Certain approaches and strategies that has been ingrained may need to be changed, so, we might be stepping on someone else's toes. Of course there would be some hindrance from the members but I don't think it would a strong and collective one," he added.

Old guards will object

A party source said the committee was bound to face obstructions from leaders who have been comfortable with the party's current strategies and programmes.

"The old guards are still strong in the party and on top of that they are outspoken. Any move for changes may cause discomfort and they will not hesitate to shout when they feel that their turf is disturbed," said the Klang Valley-based politician.

He revealed that the election post-mortem report was not accepted and endorsed by the CWC without a fight, alleging that there was an attempt by a senior leader to discredit the report.

"Luckily a few brave leaders in the CWC had chided him for his lame arguments. He is one of the old guards that believed that if the party sticks to its Islam-based policy, then Allah will help the party to succeed. It is obvious that he does not know the difference between policy and strategy," he said.

Leaders' statements

Meanwhile, another source revealed that the committee will have a hard time coming out with programmes to re-brand the image of some party leaders whose statements did not go down well with the public.

"We were told that the statement of leaders were one of the main reasons that had cause voters to shy away from supporting the party," he said.

He added that the committee may also need to change several key strategies as one of the main problems voiced by the grassroots is the party's election machinery.

It was also revealed that PAS' Islamic state policy was listed among the causes of the party's loss but the problem was not viewed as serious.

"The contents of the policy was not the major culprit but rather the time factor. The policy was not well received because it was launched too close to the election. It is believed that it would have been received better if the launch was earlier," he said.

Other causes mentioned were the party's inability to attract non-Muslim voters or offer tangible policies and the decline of support from among youths .