Going by the proceedings of the one-day PAS political seminar yesterday, the perception emerges that the party's desire to forge formally with the opposition coalition has not had the full blessings of all party leaders.

This follows murmurs at Markas PAS at Taman Melewar in Kuala Lumpur that questioned the 'tahaluf' (political collaboration) among the Islamic party, DAP and PKR.

There were delegates who wanted the party leadership to state clearly the boundaries of collaboration.

pas seminar 071109 hadi and nik aziz However, on the average, delegates present were seen to be accepting the view that PAS be a coalition member.

This situation was seen during the debate on the micro-study of the beliefs of Universiti Malaya political observer and academician Associate Prof Dr Abu Hassan Abdullah.

The keynote address by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang also stated that the party wanted to cement cooperation but at the same time wanted to portray PAS as a party that could stand on its own.

PAS, according to Abdul Hadi, was well experienced and was not only capable of being in the opposition solely but was also capable of running a state.

Such a view can be seen as being a clear message to coalition partners that Pas did not actually need the DAP and PKR to win elections.

Abdul Hadi's speech was not in tandem with PAS spiritual leader, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, who had stated that the party had no objection to being in a coalition in an formal manner.

Guest panelist ticked off

interfaith dr aziz bari interview 080606 insignificant The seminar that was actually supposed to be a forum for PAS to strengthen the party but turned into a platform for some delegates to berate political observer Prof Dr Abdul Aziz Bari who was invited by the party.

They were not happy with criticisms by Abdul Aziz ( left ) through Malaysiakini and a Bahasa Malaysia tabloid last month that among others alluded to the failure of the party's leadership to resolve several issues, especially those related to PAS in Selangor.

The irony of it all was that the invitation to Abdul Aziz was based on his being a lecturer at the International Islamic University Malaysia to share his views with party leaders to strengthen the party.

pas seminar 071109 abu hassan hasbullah The actions of a section of delegates spurred another invited political observer, Associate Prof Dr Abu Hassan Hasbullah ( right ), to say that they should actually offer their views and not berate.

"Why get angry with debaters? That's primitive. What needs to be discussed today is political intelligence. This is not the 17th century. Why must we assume what's written ia all libel and not information?" he said.

- Bernama