COMMENT Those who know the PAS faithful well will tell you that their resentment of Umno is stronger than their misgivings about Pakatan Rakyat.

The DAP and PKR components of the opposition coalition have been at odds with the Islamic party, or more accurately its ulama wing, for the better part of the last two years.

But this has made little or no dent on the PAS grassroots’ desire to see the end of rule by Umno which is why they are quicker to rally to Pakatan’s cause than be distracted by the tempests that strain the coalition.

Political observers point to the unexpectedly strong turnout of PAS diehards in Permatang Pasir, the PAS-controlled ward within the parliamentary constituency of Permatang Pauh, in favour of PKR candidate Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in the recent by-election there.

Azizah, the PKR president and soon to be Opposition Leader, won by a better-than-expected majority of 8,000-plus votes on a voter turnout that was 15 percent down from Election 2013 levels.

A lower turnout was expected to considerably narrow Azizah’s victory margin but, in the event, it did not appreciably reduce it and that is being credited to the adhesiveness of the PAS vote for a Pakatan candidate.

Its solidity for Azizah was a surprise given the disharmony that had bedeviled the relationship between PAS and PKR from some time back.

For weeks before the May 7 poll, the acrimony between some PAS Penang leaders and PKR was distressing enough to warrant speculation that PAS voters in Permatang Pasir would keep away from the May 7 poll or will turn in spoilt ballots.

That they didn’t, coming out in droves instead to vote for Azizah was indicative of what is surmised as true of the PAS grassroots: their resentment of Umno overrides their reservations about Pakatan.

This factor is now regarded as a good sign for the prospects of Ustaz Awang Ahmad who has agreed to be nominated to contest the post of president of PAS, which will elect its principal office-bearers at its muktamar in Kuala Selangor over the first weekend of next month.

The cleric was not rated as being able to beat incumbent Abdul Hadi Awang, who garnered a hatful of nominations from the PAS divisions which met through April and part of May in preparation for their biennial elective muktamar.

Hadi’s stature as an ulama is more lustrous than Ahmad’s and as the incumbent president from 2002, he has the inside track to retaining his post.

But after a run of developments in the lead-up to the party polls in three weeks’ time, the prospects of Ahmad, who has been vice-president and was at one time head of the national ulama association (PUM), have brightened.

The most recent of these developments is Hadi’s remarks earlier this week backing Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to carry on as PM of the country in the face of mounting evidence that the scandal-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) have drawn public ire.

Hadi endorsing Najib to stay on as PM will be taken by the PAS faithful as indicative of the man’s support for a unity government with Umno.

It is said that 70 percent of the Islamic party’s one-million members are against the idea, so Hadi’s backing for Najib should redound to his disadvantage in the final vote for the president’s post, the first time that the position is up for a contest in PAS’ 63-year history.

It was naive of Hadi to have backed the embattled Najib to continue in office when a goodly number in his party simply abhor Umno, but the PAS chief has been known to be clumsy and maladroit when it comes to political pronouncement.

By contrast, Ahmad weighs carefully what he says and is a resolute opponent of the idea of a unity government with Umno.

Tense struggle over past six years

Ahmad has discounted his chances of securing an upset win against Hadi on the grounds that the divisional polls of April and early May went very much in favour of the ulama faction, which over the past six years at least has been in a tense struggle with the professional wing for control of the party.

PAS ulama, with rare exceptions like Ahmad, are generally warm to the idea of collaborating with Umno; the professionals are wholly averse to the idea.

June’s elective muktamar is expected to bring this smouldering struggle to a denouement that will determine the direction the party will take in the immediate future.

Aware that this is a climactic struggle, Ahmad, who at 79 years was inclined to a recessional, has allowed himself to be thrust to the fore in a bid to preserve the party’s ties with Pakatan and keep its professional wing soldered to the party’s mainstream.

In other words, he is in direct line of descent to Ustaz Mohd Fadzil Noor ( photo ), Hadi’s much-respected predecessor as party president (1989-2002), who encouraged professionals to join the party and play a prominent role in its evolution.

In the past several weeks, Ahmad has quietly pressed his claims to the presidency with appearances at Pakatan-supported events such the May Day demonstration against the GST where he led the prayer and he even put in an appearance at the obsequies for the father of a young Pakatan activist who died in an accident.

His public pronouncements, especially on the allegedly dirty tactics employed by opponents of the professionals who vied largely in vain to keep their positions in the divisional polls in the face of an onslaught by the ulama, were tempered by sobriety rather than laced with the contempt that those tactics, if true, deserved.

He has merely to garner a good 40 percent of the vote which would be deemed a sizeable enough showing - sufficient to tell the awkward Hadi that he is not monarch of all he surveys in PAS.

At the outset of an anticipated challenge from him a month and a half ago, Ahmad was not expected to obtain even 20 percent of the vote.

Six weeks is a long time in politics, lengthy enough for Ahmad Awang to transit from outside contender to major competitor for a pivotal position in national political landscape.

 

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for more than four decades. A sobering discovery has been that those who protest the loudest tend to replicate the faults they revile in others.