There is an attempt by the PAS top leadership to keep a lid low on the grouses surrounding the botched investments by a party-linked cooperative, which has resulted in members losing their savings, claimed sources today.

The sources said the latest attempt was the cancellation of a meeting between PAS leaders and Koperasi Al-Hilal Berhad (Kohilal) directors scheduled on Feb 12, after the matter was reported in the media.

"There are people with interest up there who don't want the issue to be further highlighted. They want to sweep everything under the carpet and keep people in the dark. That's why they got scared when the press got to know about it.

"We can only guess why they behaved in such an unbecoming manner. I suspect that it is to protect certain leaders, " said the source, who is close to the leadership.

This allegation was dismissed by central working committee Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad, who claimed that the party leadership was anxious to deal with the issue.

"We want everything to be open and clear so that we can solve this issue as soon as possible. Of course legally the party is not bound by the alleged mismanagement as it only involved certain individuals in the party. But because this has affected a lot of our members we have seriously discussed the matter," he said when contacted

Syed Azman, who is also the press secretary to party president Abdul Hadi Awang, believed that a similar meeting will be held in the near future.

"Although I am not too sure on the status of the meeting I don't think that it was cancelled permanently. It may have been postponed to another date," he added.

Yesterday, Kohilal informed malaysiakini of the meeting and had extended an invitation to attend a press conference that would be held later.

'Unforseen circumstances'

However, its secretary Razali Mohd Daud today announced via a faxed statement that the meeting was cancelled " due to unforseen circumstances". When contacted, he refused to divulge the cause of the cancellation.

A Kohilal staff who requested anonymity revealed that the cooperative received a call from one of the leaders informing them of the cancellation.

The staff was also puzzled by the development as it was PAS who had sought for the meeting with the cooperative's board members.

"We were told that party leaders wanted to meet us regarding the controversial investments. So we fixed Feb 12. We assumed that the meeting was a follow-up to a meeting we had in November last year where Kohilal submitted a report over the botched investments."

The staff said the cooperative also assumed that it would be meeting the special committee - led by vice president Azizan Abdul Razak- formed to look into problems related to Kohilal.

The staff said the cancellation was upsetting as many believed that the meeting would bring positive development.

"We thought that finally the leaders are solving the issue head on. But I guess we were wrong."

Meanwhile, party vice president Azizan Abdul Razak appeared clueless about the committee that he is supposedly heading.

"Is there such a committee? We talk about a lot of issues and problems during our meetings...including Kohilal. I have talked to ustaz Hassan Shukri who was with Kohilal before but that's all," he said when contacted yesterday.

He was also in the dark when asked about the cancellation, saying that he had never arranged to meet Kohilal directors.

"Where did you hear this? Maybe the people who told you misheard my conversation. I am a Kohilal member. Of course I can go there anytime to ask about my investments. But I don't know about any such meeting."

Sources close to the top leadership insisted that the committee existed, consisting of Azizan, youth chief Salahuddin Ayub and Kelantan PAS leader Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman.

"Yes, in a recent meeting it was decided that there would be a committee to look into the Kohilal issue. Azizan knows well about it but only God knows why he had problems admitting it."

Issues linked to Kohilal have repeatedly been raised at various party meetings both at the state and federal level including the recent special convention .

The dissatisfaction of members led to the mass resignation of Kohilal's directors chaired by Hassan Shukri, now PAS deputy president, in June 2002. He had been at the helm of the co-operative society since 1996.

The state leadership in Negri Sembilan and Selangor have since taken affirmative actions to get the PAS' top leadership actively involved in settling the issue.

It was earlier reported that Kohilal had lost a total RM 46.5 million of which was invested in among others an ostrich farm in Australia, trading of gold and the Indonesian agriculture sector.