Championing Islam and PAS bashing flavoured the debates on the first day of the Umno's 66th general assembly proper in Kuala Lumpur today.

Deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin set the ball rolling with his opening speech for the general assemblies of the Umno Youth, Wanita and Puteri wings on Tuesday night.

muhyiddin yassin pc 170310 Muhyiddin picked on PAS, labelling it a 'minnow' party in Pakatan Rakyat, which had to "compromise" on its Islamic principles under pressure from the other coalition members.

The baton was then caught by party president Najib Abdul Razak, who dedicated a portion of his policy speech to stress Umno as far more Islamic than PAS.

Najib recounted how, under Umno's lead of the BN-led federal government, Malaysia is an Islamic country with a vibrant Islamic finance, enshrined syariah law and an Islamic economy.

On cue, the PAS bashing and arguments that Umno is the champion of Islam continued this afternoon with the party delegates debating Najib's speech.

The first on the pulpit, Penang delegate Reezal Merican Naina Merican, painted Umno as "enabler of Islam" while hacking at PAS for accusing the Malay party as apostate.

'Not an elightened leader'

Reezal also likened PAS spiritual adviser Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat to "the number one misleader", rather then an enlightened leader for the views Nik Aziz held.

NONE Picking up where Reezal left off, Kelantan delegate Alwi Che Ahmad painted Umno as the one elevating Islam as the religion of the country, not just as the official religion of the land, giving Umno the freedom to champion Islam though, not at the expense of other religions.

Alwi also opined that PAS was not synonymous with Islam as much as wearing a slipper , just as selipar jepun does not make one a Japanese. And neither is legendary singer Siput Sarawak a snail despite her name being Siput, which in Malay means snail.

And siput babi or garden snail is not related to pigs despite the word babi, Malay for pig, in its name.

Federal Territories delegate Yahya Mat Ghani continued the barrage against PAS, questioning which Islamic text the Islamic party was using as its guide to condemn Umno as apostate.

Yahya referred to PAS leaders as "weak and ineffectual" as they had to bend to the will of the other Pakatan members.

'Obsessed with Putrajaya'

Malacca delegate Hasnoor Sidang Husin labelled PAS a "commercial party" obsessed with Putrajaya, which has forgotten its Islamic roots and stayed silent when the other Pakatan parties transgressed against Islam and even sidelined its leaders Hasan Ali and Nasharuddin Hassan for talking about Muslim unity.

NONE In their speeches, the Umno delegates also sprinkled in smatterings of Islamic philosophies and verses from the Qur'an, sweetening their usual racial rhetoric with Islamic icing.

This may be an attempt to paint themselves as champions of Islam to position themselves to go head-to-head with PAS, Muhyiddin's 'winnow' statement notwithstanding.

And the focus on PAS is an indication of the party Umno sees as its main enemy for Malay votes in the coming general election.

Delegates seemed to stick to the script, with no out-of-the-box or discordant debates at the assembly.

Though they stoked much interest in the media and outside the general assembly, the twin scandals spawned by ex-IGP Musa Hassan and carpet trader Deepak Jaikishin did not make it into today's debate.

This despite comments that the former IGP's accusation of Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein interfering with the police foce and Deepak's allegations that a senior Wanita Umno leader cheated him out of some land were clear attempts to disrupt the proceedings.

Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's NFC scandal involving her family was also not raised.

Umno appears to be closing ranks against these outside 'disruptions', which may show that party discipline is being enforced.

However, the refusal of the delegates to address such serious accusations could also be seen as avoiding these issues - and which could well make things worse come election time.

With two more days of debates scheduled, it is not known if this toeing-the-line situation will continue and whether all delegates will stick to this script.

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