PAS acting president Abdul Hadi Awang's thumbs-up for some government policies is being seen by Umno leaders as a glittering generalisation for their party too, and this is not sitting well with their PAS counterparts.

Yesterday, two newspapers - The New Sunday Times and Berita Minggu - published an interview with Abdul Hadi who expressed his admiration for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's foreign policy and his reluctance to accept the Internal Monetary Fund (IMF) support in 1998 when Malaysia's economy was ailing.

Subsequently, New Straits Times today published comments from two Umno vice-presidents, Muhammad Muhammad Taib ( far left ) and Najib Abdul Razak o­n the matter.

The former said PAS should support all government policies and not restrict its praises to just the foreign policy while Najib saw it as an opportunity to strengthen ties between the two parties, especially o­n issues concerning Islam and Muslims.

Critical views

While commending the two newspapers for printing Abdul Hadi's views, PAS vice-president Mustafa Ali said today it must be noted that the party chief also stressed that he did not agree with some of the government's decisions.

"I am glad that the two newspapers have agreed to give voice to Abdul Hadi, but when he said he agreed that with some of the policies, that does not mean that he agreed with all BN policies," he told malaysiakini .

He added that it was obvious from the interview that the PAS chief - who is also Terengganu Menteri Besar - had stated his stand o­n other issues, such as Sekolah Agama Rakyat (SAR), which he did not agree with Mahathir.

The government had recently retracted its funding for SAR or public religious schools, claiming that PAS was instilling anti-government sentiments among the students.

"What Umno leaders must realise is that we (PAS) cannot agree o­n every single policy created by BN," said Mustafa, who is also the member of Parliament for Dungun.

Transparent party

Meanwhile, PAS secretary-general Nasharuddin Mat Isa echoed Mustafa's view, adding that his party was always transparent o­n issues.

"It is unfortunate that the party leaders are rarely given the opportunity to have their say in the media, so that the public can judge the party leaders and its policies," he said when contacted.

He also explained that Abdul Hadi who is also parliamentary opposition leader o­nly agreed with Mahathir o­n policies that benefitted the nation rather than Umno.

"For instance, PAS does not agree with the government policy o­n the Internal Security Act (ISA) issue," he added.

The government insists that the act is needed to safeguard national security whereas the opposition sees it as a tool for clamming up dissent.

Another PAS leader and Kubang Kerian MP, Husam Musa said Umno leaders should not manipulate Abdul Hadi's comments into something that he did not mean.

Agreeing with his leader's praise o­n some government policies, Husam said: "In any country, when a new government takes over, not all the previous policies will be trashed. (The) good o­nes will be continued or even improved."

Such comments from Umno leaders o­nly reflected their typical tactic of confusing the public whenever possible through the media toward their end, Husam alleged.