The failure of the pro-ulama group in PAS to wrest back the No. 2 post from Mohamad Sabu is a signal that the party wants to go mainstream rather than pursue its original Islamic agenda.
IT’s hard to keep hot news a secret and by late afternoon, the word was that Mohamad Sabu had won. But no one would have been able to foretell that looking at him the last few days.
The normally cheery and talkative PAS politician has not been his usual self. He was at the side of his president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang for most of the events including the daily press conferences but did not utter a word.
No comment, no smile, no expression – Mat Sabu has been like a coiled-up spring since the muktamar began.
At about 5pm, when incumbent vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar took a short-cut through the media centre to the prayer room, reporters called out, “Tahniah, Datuk!”
The word was that he had won but the tall and lanky Mahfuz claimed he had not heard anything and almost ran out of the door.
He was not acting because when Election Commission chairman Asmuni Awi went on stage to announce the results, he said the votes for the vice-presidents’ contest were still being tallied. It was greeted by loud groans from the media crowd.
Apparently, there was a request for a recount and the result for the vice-presidents will only be known today.
The outcome of the most intense election campaign in the history of PAS has been a severe blow to the pro-ulama group in PAS. They failed despite a fierce campaign to wrest back the deputy president post for one of their own.
Mat Sabu polled 588 votes to defeat ulama candidate and Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah who secured 490 votes. It was a credible margin.
His victory is no small feat. He was up against the moral might of the ulama who painted him as an interloper who took a post that ought to have gone to an ulama. He also had to endure a bruising attack on his religious beliefs.
But he is quite aware that winning again is only going to make the pro-ulama group more resentful and he tried to downplay the win, saying that it was a contest among the jemaah or the Muslim family.
His post-victory body language was a contrast from when he first won the deputy president post in 2011. It had been his second try back then and he was openly delighted to have pipped two big ulama names for the post.
He was rather subdued this time around because he was aware of the raw emotions out there.
The real challenge for Mat Sabu actually lies ahead. The party was clearly split down the middle over the contest for the No. 2 post. It is hard to see how he will be able to reach out to the other side and to bring them around to some common ground.
The 18 Central Working Committee (CWC) posts were quite evenly divided between those from the pro-Erdogan camp and the ulama group.
The man to watch from the CWC line-up is Idris Ahmad, a hardline ulama figure from Perak. He was the top scorer securing 927 votes from among the 1,000-plus delegates. He nudged the former top scorer and Felda activist Mazlan Aliman into second place with 840 votes.
The attacks against the pro-Erdogan group also appears to have limited impact and the main protagonists from among them were re-elected.
It means that the delegates want the party to continue the journey that it started in 2008 and that means working with DAP and PKR. They have tasted power through Pakatan Rakyat and they want more.
It looks like PAS has reached the point of no return. Instead of redefining the party’s role in Pakatan, the party may have to redefine its policy of leadership by the ulama.
The once powerful and influential ulama cliche will have to accept that a non-ulama may one day be the president of PAS.
The ballot paper blunder will also haunt PAS for a while to come. It was basically a careless mistake done when the ballots for the 62 CWC candidates were being collated to voting booklets.
About 15 people had voted when one of the delegates raised the alarm. He could not find the ballot paper for former Youth chief Nasrudin Tantawi.
Another booklet contained double ballots for a woman candidate Dr Najihatusolehah Ahmad.
Voting for the CWC was immediately halted but that for the deputy and vice-presidents posts continued.
It was very embarrassing considering that it involved only 1,000-plus voters or delegates and 62 candidates. It was also a humbling lesson for PAS which has been a fierce critic of the Election Commission.
Asmuni later told colleagues that “now, I know what the Election Commission goes through”.
Asmuni, a lawyer with a quaint Beatles hairdo, had looked stressed-out when met on the morning of the election. He had said then that it was a “high blood pressure job”. The polls fiasco must have caused his blood pressure to shoot up further. To his credit, he offered to resign immediately but was told to continue.
One of the happiest man yesterday was probably Datuk Dr Mahfodz Mohamad, the PAS commissioner for Johor. He got to go up on stage to announce that the Sultan of Johor had decreed Friday as the weekend for the state.
Friday is the holiest day of the week for Muslims and a motion to thank Tuanku Johor was passed with immediate effect by the muktamar with three cries of “Takbir!” And “Allahuakbar!”
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