COMMENT There must be a great deal of interest in the identity of the ulama who will support the G18 movement.

The G18, of course, is the group of progressives who were ousted at the PAS elective assembly in Kuala Selangor last month.

Since their ouster this bunch, who have been trying to modernise  PAS over the past three decades, has been mulling the formation of a new political party aimed at achieving the goals they think are no longer attainable through PAS because of their evisceration in the party polls.

These goals include the strengthening of opposition forces under the Pakatan Rakyat banner for the purpose of bringing about comprehensive reform of the political status quo.

Since any such achievement must have the support of theologians in our Islam-saturated polity, interest has sparked in the identity of the ulama who are said to be keen to show their support for G18.

A signal member of G18, Mujahid Yusof Rawa ( photo ), disclosed in his constituency of Parit Buntar yesterday that a meeting in Kuala Lumpur today would unveil the identity of these ‘progressive’ ulama.

Presumably, these progressive ulama are not inclined to take a literalist view of their religion which was what separated the conservatives of PAS from the progressives.

Pakatan supporters can’t wait to know who these progressive ulama are, given what has emanated from the traditional ulama of PAS - the ones who triumphed in the party elections - on such contentious issues as the 1MDB and also the subject of what exactly is the legacy of past PAS leaders such as immediate past president Fadzil Noor and the legendary and recently deceased Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

The statements - extenuations, more nearly - that have issued from the current top two in PAS, president Abdul Hadi Awang ( left in photo ) and spiritual leader Haron Din ( right in photo ), on the 1MDB issue could fairly be described as attempted justifications of embattled Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s position.

In sum, Hadi and Haron’s stance has been that the PM has been unfairly maligned in the wake of reports in the international newspaper, The Wall Street Journal ( WSJ ), that US$700 million in 1MDB funds had been transferred from the bank accounts of the sovereign wealth fund into the personal accounts of the premier.

Najib has not denied the reports of the monetary transfers; only, he has said, these funds were not used for his personal benefit.

Twice in recent days, the PM has publicly thanked the PAS murshidul am saying things in extenuation of Najib’s position.    

In the immediate aftermath of the WSJ report, the incumbent PAS deputy president, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, an ulama from the conservative wing of the party but with a greater capacity for objective opinion than, say, Hadi and Haron, urged Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor to declare their assets.

A rather different tune

This was a rather different tune to what has emerged from Hadi and Haron.

Hadi floated the proposition that the claims of the WSJ needed to be authenticated by Islamically-reputable witnesses, while Haron argued that it was inherently implausible for an intending embezzler to transfer money from government accounts to his personal accounts.

However, to Haron’s credit, he did say that if it were true that such a transfer did indeed take place, then it would be testimony to the arrival of a “terrible” state in the nation’s affairs.

Actually, the very transfer of money from a government-owned company’s  accounts to the PM’s personal accounts is so gross a violation of the proprieties that the deed - in this case, undenied by the person involved - should compel the resignation of the transgressing party

The money is the state’s and at US$700 million it’s not an inconsequential sum.

The conflicting values that prompt the responses of government and opposition politicians to the IMDB imbroglio, particular the latest twists in the saga, reflect the gulfs that opened up in Malaysian society.

Some find it appalling that funds belonging to a government-owned corporation were diverted into the personal bank accounts of the chairperson of the board, while others think that the move is all right provided the funds were not used to benefit the account-holder, and still others find that the very move itself must have had benign motives because a intending embezzler would not be so stupid as to divert mega sums from a corporation he heads to his personal bank accounts.

In this cacophony of conflicting values, it would be interesting to hear who the ulama that favour the G18 group are and what their values are as deduced from what they say.

We will also know what these ulama have to say about what the legacy of  Fadzil Noor and Nik Aziz.

Fadzil and Nik Aziz were for collaboration between opposition groups to bring about change to an ossified political landscape.

In contrast, Hadi and Haron appear willing to be apologists and collaborators with the very forces that have caused this stagnation.

Thus Mujahid’s disclosure that the G18 would unveil ulama who are interested to back the movement for political reformation is a matter of great interest and expectation.

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.