COMMENT We have it from the ancient Greeks that a life without criticism is not worth living.

This week two voices from across the political divide have spoken up for this strength of democracies: that internal criticism is not a sign of weakness; instead it's a mark of strong political parties.

One voice belonged to Musa Hitam, one-time deputy prime minister and deputy president of Umno, and the other was that of Husam Musa ( photo ), a longtime PAS stalwart and luminary of the Kelantan state administrations of the late and revered menteri besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

Musa has tended to keep his counsel on the 1MDB issue, the RM42 billion sovereign wealth fund that for the better part of this year has been a bellwether of controversy, both at home and abroad.

Yesterday, however, Musa came out in support of debate and discussion of the issue, deprecating in the process the view that internal criticism will weaken a political party.

Musa's remarks could not have been better timed because its target, Umno, holds its annual general assembly next week.

In a controversial run-up to the meeting, incumbent deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin, who was sacked from the cabinet by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in late July for public criticism of 1MDB, is not going to be allowed to officially open the joint openings of the Youth, Wanita and Puteri wings of Umno's annual convention.

Traditionally, it has been the function of the deputy president to preside over the joint openings.

Not this year though, for as party secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor averred, the official opening and its being done by the party No 2 don't have the backing of constitutional writ.

In other words, the role is conferred by tradition, not the constitution. And tradition is dispensable, so says the party sec-gen.

In remarks made in an interview with a webnews portal, Musa pronounced this line of reasoning “unheard of”.

He said that after quarrelling with party president and then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed in 1986, he was allowed to perform the official opening as the incumbent deputy president at the joint openings of the Youth and Wanita wings not only the same year, but also the following year when the launching was more critical because party polls were being held in 1987.

For that elective assembly, the role offered the opportunity of delivery of a speech that could influence the voting, as Musa and the team he was allied with were in competition with Mahathir's for running the party.

Muhyiddin's case was different?

Of course, the party president had what can be called the 'bully pulpit', the platform to deliver the presidential address before the actual vote took place but that the deputy president was unhindered in delivering his traditional curtain-raiser to the joint assemblies of the Youth and Wanita wings was considerably generous.

“They might argue that Muhyiddin's case was different, he was sacked (as deputy prime minister), he's got so many issues, he might expose this and that and the other. But what are we afraid of?” queried Musa, in the interview with The Malaysian Insider , about the decision to deprive Muhyiddin ( photo ) of the chance to speak.

Usually, in the face of criticism like Musa's of acts by the Najib imperium that presently runs Umno, someone or some quarter from the claque surrounding the PM, will volley back, with counter-criticism that is of the 'pot-calling-the-kettle-black' variety.

The hit-back is almost immediate but so far, more than a day has passed and nothing in the manner of a rebuttal has appeared, a sign that Musa's criticisms have hit home and that his stature as more of a supporter of Najib rather than a critic of the PM is telling.

Husam is not in a similar position vis-a-vis PAS, but yesterday he levelled criticism at his party that strongly echoed Musa's expressed anxieties about the drift to dictatorship in Umno.

Though a stellar member of the state governments of Kelantan during Nik Aziz's long tenure as menteri besar (1990-2013), Husam's bona fides as an Islamist has long been held suspect by the conservatives who triumphed in the party polls last June.

Husam and the entire lot of progressives in PAS were wiped out at the polls. The latter went on to form Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah).

Husam did not join the Amanah caravan but instead opted to direct a steady stream of criticism against alleged deviations and wrongdoings by PAS central and Kelantan state leaders.

They called him on the carpet. He has responded with detailed delineation of his criticisms and yesterday he defended the right to criticise the leadership.

“Something that is not good must be reprimanded, that is the principle of PAS,” averred Husam.

Having said his piece, he opted to lay down his weapons , in deference to courtesies of Malay/Muslim political dialogue where criticism is tempered to evoke dialogue and debate, and not stir resentment and grudges.

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.