From Terence Netto
In recent weeks, the top brass of PAS have made statements about why they are in no hurry to name one of their MPs as parliamentary opposition leader.
The post became vacant when Hamzah Zainudin, who was deputy president of Bersatu, a component of Perikatan Nasional, was sacked by his party on Feb 13.
This meant that Hamzah was party-less and therefore ineligible for posts within the PN coalition.
The Larut MP had performed well in that role.
The ostensible reason is that he has mixed widely as an MP and makes it a point to know what intelligent opinion on a given matter is.
The fact that PAS is taking time to pick from among their ranks a replacement for Hamzah is itself telling: PAS does not readily have someone of Hamzah’s street smartness to take up the reins.
To be sure, senior PAS leaders have indicated they have a list of candidates for the role but that they want to consult widely, even supporters from Sabah and Sarawak, before they settle on a choice.
These explanations are unconvincing.
Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin underscored this point when he urged PAS to name their candidate as a delay in doing so will detract from the credibility of the opposition alliance.
PN are the government in waiting.
Hence tardiness in naming the opposition leader would damage public confidence in PN’s role as being capable of taking over the government should the incumbent Madani government fall for some reason or is defeated in a general election that has to be called by mid-February 2028.
Politics is a matter of perception which is why a delay in PAS choosing someone within their ranks for such an important post reflects poorly on them.
Party bigwigs are at pains to say there is plenty of time to not rush the choice because parliament reconvenes only in late June.
Hence there is time to consult widely and choose carefully.
But the role of opposition leader is one that requires the holder to be capable of surveying the horizon of national circumstance and issue statements that position his alliance as capable of taking stock and making sense of the flux of events.
He or she is a minister without portfolio, one who can deftly traipse through the horizon of national circumstance and articulate a position that will suggest fluency if not mastery of evolving facts.
The late Fadzil Noor, the only previous holder from PAS of this role between late 1999 and mid-2002, was greatly aided in this task from having Dr Hatta Ramli as his secretary.
Hatta was from the progressive wing of the Islamic party which was fostered and encouraged by Fadzil and the spiritual leader then, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, for the performance of just such tasks as would the panoply encompassed by the designation – minister without portfolio – entails.
The professional ranks of PAS were defeated and run ragged in the 2015 party elections. They decamped to set up Amanah.
Ever since PAS has had to scrape the bottom of the barrel when coming up with explanations of issues that sizzle on the national horizon.
Whenever called upon to hold forth president Abdul Hadi Awang reflexively dips into his Islamic repertoire and tosses out remarks that would perhaps only make sense to religious followers, not the secular minded.
This would be alright if Malaysia were a theocracy, which it is not.
It is a constitutional democracy and the embedded Basic Structure Doctrine holds that fact to be unalterable. PAS have adjustments to its mind-set to do.
Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.