COMMENT Idris Ahmad is exceptional among PAS ulamak in that his speeches are not studded with verses from the Quran.

He is more apt to talk about the national debt's impact on ordinary citizens than perhaps what Islamic scripture says about debt and its effects.

On the campaign trail, this PAS vice-president - who is also the Bukit Gantang MP - prefers to address bread and butter issues rather than display his erudition as an ustaz with a Masters degree in Islamic studies from a local university.

It's his pragmatism more than any secularity in his outlook that keeps his attention fastened to the everyday concerns of ordinary folk, and not so much their eligibility for the afterlife.

Practically alone among a productive breed, Idris, 52, has only one offspring, a son who is also a graduate in Islamic studies.

When Idris applied to do his doctorate at a local university, he was assigned a reviewer whose political leanings were averse to Idris', which was why the long-time PAS member abandoned the effort, knowing that it was futile to submit his work to a politically jaundiced eye.

Pride as much as practicality rode in that decision; the same instincts, one might say, drove a hitherto reticent Idris to open up on the issue of Umno's recent overture to PAS to work together.

Idris had topped the vote for one of the three vice-president's posts in the party's polls in June.

Not only does typical Muslim modesty restrain him from dwelling on this notable attainment, he has not thought it fit to use that elevation to leverage his opinions on issues.

Instead, since PAS' divisive polls which saw the conservatives rout the professionals - leading to the latter leaving to form the splinter, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) - Idris has chosen to keep his counsel.

Idris had trod a careful line between both factions, a difficult balance to bring off given the heat of the contest between the two for advantage in the party polls.

What Idris had to say

Idris has friends among the departed professionals, but like former PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar, an innate loyaty to the party meant that one's valued friends may leave - however that is no reason for a stalwart to waver in his fealty.

It became a matter of some curiosity then, what Idris had to say about the recent flap in the party over Umno president Najib Abdul Razak's overtures to PAS, to wit, that both Malay parties ought to work together to build up the Islamic community and the country.

Najib's proposition, aired at the Umno general assembly early this month and repeated the week after at a gathering of alumni of Al-Azhar University, has started a muted debate in PAS though party president Abdul Hadi Awang has drawn the shutters on it by saying the top leadership will come out with a directive on the matter, so prior general discussions must be discreet.

This was seen as an attempt to halt would-be critics of the proposition in their tracks, but in controversial straits like these, any move to turn off the mains requires an iron control of all vents which is not possible in a big outfit like PAS with its million-plus members.

Thus when party secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan - speaking on the sidelines of Malay right wing group Perkasa's annual general meeting last Sunday - voiced the view that if Umno wanted to make up with PAS, all the bad vibes in their past history would be forgotten and forgiven , only to retract those remarks the next day, the bonds of prior restraints were broken.

Unsurprisingly, Idris spoke up - in bold and unvarnished terms.

“If any individual wants to merge with Umno, then let that individual be the one who leaves (PAS),” Idris was quoted as saying in a statement.

Idris recalled the departures of past luminaries of the party for Umno, saying their shifts in allegiance did not weaken PAS.

“PAS was still formidable because of its policies, not because of individuals in the party,” argued Idris.

Idris' reaction mirrors the visceral response of those in PAS who are apt to loathe any collaboration with Umno, leave alone the prospect of merger.

Only as recently as just after the last general election in May 2013, the late and revered PAS spiritual leader, Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, was quoted in a Malay daily as saying that he would “spit” on the face of anyone who proposed a merger with Umno.

As visceral reactions go, Nik Aziz's towards Umno is the nadir. Idris Ahmad's is not much better.

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.