VIDEO l 2:10 mins

MUKTAMAR PAS Ulama chief Harun Taib has denied that his wing is "power crazy" as alleged, only that the wing is the foundation of the party's Islamic principles.

NONE Officiating the Ulama muktamar today as part of the party's proceedings this week in Shah Alam, he said his wing has been "misinterpreted" on its stand on Islam and on the party's ties with Pakatan Rakyat.

"We are not power hungry. We are not power crazy. But PAS is a party whose basis is Islamic principles and its highest laws are the Al-Quran, Al-Sunnah, Ijma and Qias.

"(At present) no one understands the basis of the party more than the ulama. We do not insult or look down on anyone who is not from the ulama," Harun ( left ) said.

He also clarified that the urging to review PAS's involvement in Pakatan was not to "break ties" with the coalition but only to review it in a manner that benefits Islam.

Harun claimed the multaqa (convention) of PAS Ulama in Kedah last September had been "misinterpreted", resulting in their conference today being quite heated.

It was proposed there that PAS should review its collaboration with DAP and PKR in Pakatan Rakyat to protect its interests.

Meanwhile, in his main speech read out by his deputy Ahmad Yaakob, Harun cited the party’s performance and successes within Pakatan, which succeeded in retaining its hold on Selangor, Kelantan and Penang.

NONE Although it lost a few parliamentary seats in Kedah, Harun said PAS nonetheless succeeded in increasing its number of parliamentary seats in Pahang and Terengganu to 21.

“As a religious and political movement, PAS’ struggle is not aimed at merely winning the election, but its main goal is to seek the pleasure of Allah by making use of the power obtained from the election (winnings) to implement Islam.

“The question to ask is, with the success derived from the Pakatan Rakyat collaboration, have we succeeded or at least tried to enthrone Islam in the administration and law?” he said.

Comango ‘beating the red light’

Harun further reminded those gathered not to ignore the claims by Coalition of Malaysian NGOs (Comango), which he alleged was to champion for the rights of deviant sex practices to be accepted by law.

“This effort (by Comango), if allowed, will erode a moral society, what more the religious society in Malaysia.We cannot do nothing while seeing such vices,” he said.

In his speech, he deemed Comango’s ( below ) actions as akin to “beating the red light in the name of individual rights”.

NONE “Do they forget that this encroaches into the rights of other communities? Islam places the rights of the community over that of the individual,” he said.

Meanwhile, the spate of heavy crimes such as the recent shooting cases, Harun said, indicated that the federal government is not ready to return to Islamic law, which comprise hudud, qisas and diyat.

However, he pointed out that the PAS government in Kelantan and Terengganu had, in the past, made it compulsory for Islamic criminal law to be made part of state law.

“All that is left is for the central government to provide easy passage for the two states to implement this,” he said.

NONE Without naming names, Harun also stressed to Pakatan leaders who had called for the de-registration of PAS, that the Islamic party was, in fact, the most ideal party in this time, and for a multi-racial and multi-religious community, as “Allah revealed Islam to people of various races and religions”.

“Because of that, I urge Pakatan leadership to accept Islam as the basis of the country’s rule.

“ Tahaluf siayasi (political cooperation) is meant to introduce Islam to non-Muslims and explain that it is the best solution to man’s problems,” his speech read.