Pas meet: Stop extreme politics, Hadi Awang told

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s political secretary has told Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang(pic) to stop extreme politics in response to the PAS chief's “convicts” remarks.

In a statement on Saturday (Oct 21), Ahmad Farhan Fauzi expressed his regret over Abdul Hadi’s comments, where the Marang MP had reportedly said that there is no way to purify the unity pact as it is made up of convicts, corrupt individuals and a court cluster.

“The statement made during the 69th PAS Muktamar on Oct 20 clearly showed that as a religious person, the PAS President did not exude the true values of Islam,” said Ahmad Farhan.

“As a religious person, he should promote the values of togetherness and unity,” he added.

Ahmad Fauzi said moderation must be practised in politics, and politicians must refrain from being divisive and slandering others.

He hoped that this incident would serve as a lesson for politicians to practice moderation in politics and refrain from demeaning those with a different ideology.

According to reports, Abdul Hadi rejected the possibility of joining the unity government.

He was responding to Umno secretary-general Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, who claimed that the Islamist party could “purify” UMNO if PAS joined the unity pact.

“You can see the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, who is in it? How do you expect it to be pure? There are convicts, there are those who were previously accused of committing corruption, there are court clusters. How can we follow them?

“If we want to clean the filth, we cannot enter a container filled with filth,” he reportedly said during a press conference after the opening ceremony of the 69th PAS Congress at IDCC Shah Alam in Selangor today (Oct 20).

While he did not name names, Abdul Hadi’s 'prisoner' remark is believed to be alluding to Anwar.