New PAS information chief Ahmad Awang denied that his friendship with ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim had led to his appointment yesterday.

Instead, he claimed that he was picked by party president Abdul Hadi Awang because of his vast experience in dakwah or Islamic missionary activities.

Ahmad had laughed when told that some observers viewed his appointment as an attempt by the Islamic opposition party to forge a closer working relationship with Anwar.

"I don't see it that way but other people may have their own interpretations. I think the president believes that I am capable to hold the job because of my experience in dakwah .

"The post is after all about information and dakwah . I headed the dakwah unit in Pusat Islam which was under the Prime Minister's Department," said the 69-year old ulama (religious scholar) who retired from government service in 1991.

Apart from this, he believed that his tenure as the head of the non-governmental Ulamak Association of Malaysia for 19 years between 1981 and 1999 also contributed to his appointment.

Anwar's friendship

Ahmad also spoke about his friendship with Anwar and recalled how he played a role in the ex-deputy premier's marriage to Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

"I was the spokesperson for the rombongan peminangan (wedding proposal entourage) where we asked for Azizah's hand in marriage on his behalf," he said.

Ahmad had shared a close working relationship with Anwar after being invited to help with the missionary activities in the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim), which was founded by the latter.

"Although I was never a member in Abim, brother Anwar wanted me to play a role in the dakwah planning and activities. So he invited me to come over to participate," he said.

He added that Anwar together with Kamaruddin Mohd Nor and Kamaruddin Jaafar - who yesterday was appointed PAS new secretary-general - were active in the dakwah unit.

"I think that was in the late 1970s... there were Anwar, Kamaruddin Jaafar and Kamaruddin Mohd Nor... we worked very closely then.

"I continued to help Abim's dakwah movement even when Anwar was detained under the Internal Security Act (then)," he said.

Progressive ulama

On his new job as information chief, Ahmad said it was too early to identify what his main challenges would be.

"It is very much different than my job as the commissioner of PAS Perak - a post that I held for the past four years. This job is at the national level and therefore has a bigger and wider work scope.

"I am entrusted to explain that PAS is not only a political party but also a missionary agent for Islam and at the same time promote justice and democracy for all," he added.

He said among his main agendas would be formulating new approaches to address the issues and challenges in the globalisation era.

"I also have to seriously consider what had been said by the party president (Abdul Hadi Awang) that PAS must explain and not attack or discredit. So we need to see how this can be applied," he added.

Ahmad, who graduated from Egypt's Al-Azhar University in Islamic Legal System in 1966, speaks fluent English and Arabic. He is viewed as one of the progressive ulama in PAS.

His proposal to open the party to non-Muslim members with equal rights to Muslim members had raised eyebrows particularly among the conservative ulama .

He denied that his proposal had been shut down by the party stating that the leaders believed that they should focus on Malay Muslim supporters before reaching out to others.

"I believe the file is still open. Once we have ironed out those things insya'Allah (God permits) my proposal will be properly considered," he said.