PAS Youth chief stamps new style of leadership

Nasrudin Hassan is known to raise eyebrows with his “radical” sense of dressing, which would definitely set off alarm bells at western airports.

But do not be fooled by the long-flowing robes and turban, the 38-year-old mild-mannered PAS Youth chief is just an average Joe, who loves playing futsal.

Nasruddin stressed that people should not judge a book by its cover.

“Don’t look at the appearance, it is the charisma, idealism and work skills that count,” he told Malaysiakini in an interview last Tuesday.

And that is what sets him apart from his predecessors, Mahfuz Omar and Salahuddin Ayub, who are now both parliamentarians and vice-presidents in the party.

“I would not mind when people commented or questioned the way I dress, because indirectly it shows that they pay attention to me... but a leader should not be judged on looks,” said the father of six, adding that he would not change his image for any reasons.

“And I will keep my image as I believe my friends would understand it... all this while I would take all sorts of comments regarding my image as a challenge and the people should know that I’m not who they think I am,” he said, flashing a smile.

Nasrudin, who was an Al-Azhar university graduate in syariah (law) is also widely known as Tantawi, a name derived from a place in Egypt, where the university is located.

A different political approach

Hailing from Besu, Terengganu, Nasrudin admitted that his leadership is very much influenced by both PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat, both of whom he looked up to since he was young.

Apart from that, Mahfuz and Salahudin had both taught him well on how a movement should run when he was involved with the Youth wing during their tenures.

However, when he took over, Nasrudin decided to go with a different political approach where all of the wing’s exco members would have a say according to their given portfolios.

He said that before this, press statements were usually given out only by the Youth chief and this, more or less, sidelined the other exco members.

“So this time... each of the exco member with a portfolio would have to make their own statement without having to have the Youth chief breathing down their neck,” Nasrudin said, adding that this would further strengthen the organisation.

But what happened during his predecessor’s tenures was not a mistake either, he said, as coincidently these two leaders were elected representatives and the media normally have their spotlight on them.

“What happened before was not planned, maybe because they were prominent leaders and the media liked to focus on them... but I think that needs to be changed although it was not a mistake,” said Nasrudin, who contested but lost twice in the previous general elections.

Discussions or dialogues would be better

Both Mahfuz and Salahuddin may be seen as famous leaders who would normally take part in street protests when they were in charge of the Youth wing, but Nasrudin has a different take, saying that “not all problems could be solved through street protests”.

“Moreover, we are now living in an information and engagement era... so it would be best for us to resolve any particular issues through discussions or dialogues,” he said.

But not having any street protest would not be good either because “we as Muslims need to express ourselves once in a while”.

“For example, if blasphemous remarks were made against our Prophet Muhammad by people from other countries, who do we need to have dialogue with?

“We could send out a memorandum to object (such act) but we also need to express our disgust by taking it to the streets,” said Nasrudin.

In regards with this approach, Nasrudin also said that a discussion or dialogue should be held with progressive women’s movement Sisters in Islam (SIS) despite a call made to ban the organisation by the party.

Part 1: Unity talks: PAS Youth chief invokes Quranic analogy