PAS likely to split after fractious elections next year

PAS members will have to decide who they want as leaders at crucial party elections next year. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, November 21, 2014.

PAS's elections next year will likely determine once and for all, whether the country's largest Pakatan Rakyat party will split into two.

What makes this future clash between the party's progressives and conservatives different from previous elections is that the loser would leave PAS and set up a new entity.

This was the scenario that both factions were looking at, said a senior PAS leader to The Malaysian Insider, indicating that it was unlikely that there could be a compromise between the two on the Islamist party’s future direction.

Both factions have said that they want to stick with PR. But they have markedly different views on how they want to work with their partners DAP and PKR.

Who comes out on top next year will greatly affect PAS’s working relationship with the coalition and determine how effectively PR can gain the support it needs to take over federal power.

The divide between these two groups reached crisis levels after the Selangor menteri besar saga and blew out into the open during its assembly in September.

“If we lose, we would have to consider whether to remain in PAS or not. There is a big possibility that we would need to form a new party.

“We have also learnt that the other side thinks the same way. If they lose, they are looking at the option of leaving and forming a new party,” said the leader who requested anonymity.

The leader is well known figure in the faction dubbed the “Erdogans”, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The conservatives, who are mostly religious teachers and scholars from the country’s vast religious education industry, want a more puritan approach to PAS’s Islamist agenda.

This has made them clash repeatedly with PR allies DAP and PKR over issues such as hudud or the Shariah Penal Code and whether a woman can be a menteri besar.

Although the conservatives have said they would remain with PR, there was a strong feeling that they were willing to go it alone to preserve the purity of PAS’s agenda.

The Erdogans, who are mostly made up of lawyers, doctors, engineers and those from non-religious vocations, have policy positions that are almost similar to their PR allies.

“Which is why it is important for delegates at next year’s assembly to think carefully about who they want to lead the party.

“Whether we want to move forward with PR or we want to go it alone because we want to preserve the purity of our agenda.

“If the grassroots feel they want to be with PR, they have to choose leaders who are pro-PR. If they want to choose leaders who want to at it alone, we will all have to leave PAS as we want to go forward.”

Campaigning for the next elections has already started in party cells seen as representatives of the two factions, the leader said. 

Persatuan Ummah Sejahtera Malaysia (PasMa) is said to be the spokesperson for the Erdogans while Geng Ustaz (GU) is said to be campaigning for the conservatives.

A favourite target for PasMa is PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, who is viewed as siding with the conservatives.

In a recent posting, PasMa activist Zolkharnain Abidin, who is former Perlis PAS Youth chief, said: “PAS not only needs a new president but a president who can bring something new.”

The pro-conservative faction has not been slouching either. One of its activists, who goes by the name “El Haraki”, called PasMa members “jebon” which is a Bahasa Malaysia slang for pest.

Academics and analysts have drawn similarities between PAS’s internal struggle with that of the Turkish Islamist party, Refah, of which Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, was also a member.

In the early 1980s, Refah was the biggest Islamist party in Turkey under the leadership of Necmetin Erbakan.

Like PAS now, Refah went through an internal crisis between its progressives and conservatives which split the party.

The progressives went on to form AKP and the conservatives the Saadet party.

AKP gained federal power in its maiden electoral debut in 2002 and remains the ruling party in Turkey. Saadet is still in the opposition and garners support from about 2% of the electorate.

- TMI