PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim political secretary Ahmad Farhan Fauzi responded to PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang’s cynical remarks that Anwar’s government is headed by a former convict and corrupt people by suggesting that wearing a prayer cap and leading an Islamic party does not make one a better Muslim.While he said he regretted the statement of the Marang MP, Ahmad stressed that Hadi’s speech in the annual PAS muktamar held yesterday (Oct 20) clearly shows that his behaviour does not reflect the true values of Islam.
“I think that when we want to engage in politics, let it be moderate and let us not divide the people, slander and pit the sheep against each other.“At the same time, don’t just because we wear a cap on our heads and lead a party with the name of Islam on it, we feel as if the other party is neither holy nor fully ‘Islamic’,” Ahmad said in a statement.Yesterday, Hadi cynically stated that PAS did not want to join the already tainted unity government headed by Anwar. This was perhaps in response to Anwar’s earlier comment in an interview with TIME magazine that the doors are open for the PAS to join the Madani government.Hitting hard against Anwar, Hadi said the government is full of filth and PAS does not want to ‘purify’ the parties in that government.“You can see who is in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government. How to wash? Ex-convicts are there, the court cluster (corruption cases) is also there, how do we want to follow (join)?,” HarapanDaily quoted him as saying.
Meanwhile, PKR vice president Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad criticised Hadi after the latter stated that PAS-PN must gain the support of non-Muslims in the 16th General Election (GE16).
In the PAS annual meeting yesterday, Hadi instructed the party’s members to attract non-Muslim votes to win GE16.Nik Nazmi noted in August last year that Hadi claimed that non-Muslims and non-Bumiputras were the “majority of the country’s political and economic destroyers”.“It seems that Hadi is trying to collect votes from groups that he had previously labelled as destroyers of the country. Since the beginning, Hadi has been known for his inconsistent attitude in campaigning. Today say something else, tomorrow say something else,” Nik Nazmi penned in a Facebook post. – Oct 21, 2023
Main photo credit: Bernama
