Its deputy head, Mohd Najib Arshad said several state and federal party leaders had spoken on this at a programme called “Bangkit”, which appeared not to be in line with the official statement by PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan.
He said he also felt that the call contradicted the spirit of the PAS constitution, Clause 82 (g) which stated that all PAS members, including the leadership, should control themselves from committing any action that went against or was detrimental to the party’s interest.
“We are of the view that the decision (call) was akin to a policy and thus had ignored the powers of the Syura Council and the powers of the Muktamar where the suggestion should have been debated and received its agreement, and not to give a directive immediately like that.
“The Kota Raja PAS Youth also felt that the move would negate the role of the Gagasan Sejahtera which was adopted by PAS in the 14th general election (GE14) recently,” he said in a statement.
At a “Bangkit Selangor” function last Saturday, a member of the Central PAS Ulama Syura Council, Khairuddin Aman Razali, was reported to have urged the PAS voters in Sungai Kandis to vote for the BN candidate, Lokman Noor Adam, after claiming that the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government did not look after the Islamic religion.
Takiyuddin, in a statement earlier, had advised PAS members who would be voting at the by-election to vote in the interest of Islam, the Malays and the future of the country, while urging them to take into consideration the PAS attitude towards the PH government.
Najib said he totally disagreed that the Sungai Kandis by-election should be used as a platform to support the unity of PAS and Umno-BN, whereas such matters should have been discussed and decided at the central PAS conference.
In this regard, he said the Kota Raja PAS Youth had sent an official letter to the party’s secretary-general to seek clarification besides leaving it to the wisdom of the central PAS leadership to take appropriate action on the leaders involved.
“The Kota Raja PAS Youth rejects and opposes the action of a handful of leaders who frequently made open statements which were personal in nature to the extent of creating chaos among the members.
“The Kota Raja PAS Youth has no intention whatsoever of rejecting the decision of the PAS central leadership, what more to dispute the call or directive of the central leadership by not fielding a PAS candidate in the Sungai Kandis by-election,” he said.
In the by-election, Lokman will be challenged by the PKR candidate who is also the principal of Maahad Tahfiz Al Fateh Jalan Kebun, Mohd Zawawi Ahmad Mughni, and independent candidate, government pensioner K Murthy.
The by-election for the Sungai Kandis state seat is the first by-election to be held after the GE14 following the death of incumbent assemblyman, Mat Shuhaimi Shafiei, on July 2 due to cancer.
In the GE14, Shuhaimi defended the state seat for the third consecutive term after garnering 23,998 votes to beat the BN candidate, Kamaruzzaman Johari (11,518); PAS candidate Mohd Yusof Abdullah (7,573) and the Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) candidate Hanafiah Husin (76).