The Malaysian Insight

PAS members must forgive Umno and fight the bigger enemy, said the party’s central committee member Nik Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz, as he makes a pitch for the Barisan Nasional candidate in Cameron Highlands.

Nik Abduh was the latest in a series of PAS leaders attempting to end the simmering hostility felt by ordinary PAS members towards BN and Umno because of their decades-long enmity.

Senior PAS leaders have pledged their support for BN candidate Ramli Mohd Nor in Saturday’s by-election, potentially giving the former ruling coalition an extra 3,000 votes.

But they are worried that PAS’ historic rivalry with Umno might cause some members to boycott the elections.

In a ceramah last night, Nik Abduh spent half of his 20-minute speech on forgiving Umno’s wrongs in order to cooperate and check Pakatan Harapan.

Nik Abduh said PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang is the one most saddened by Umno’s years of oppressing PAS by withholding government aid from its elected representatives and jailing its members.

“In his (Hadi) sadness, when Umno lost, when Umno leaders came to apologise to him he was the first person to say to PAS members, we have to make up with Umno,” Nik Abduh told the crowd at Felda Sg Koyan 1.

“Because in front of us, is a government that is even worse than BN. We have to learn to open our minds just like how our leaders are opening their minds. We are not doing this because we desire Putrajaya.

“But because we want to open a new chapter in Malaysian politics. We want PAS and Umno to succeed, to unite in the name of religion and country to take back Putrajaya that is being ruined by the PH government.”

Nik Abduh cited the recent dance between lawyers and judges as proof that PH was worse than Umno.

“Judges cannot dance with members of the public. This is against the code of ethics of a post that is highly respected,” he said.

He was referring to the recent controversy when Chief Justice Richard Malanjum and Attorney-General Tommy Thomas were caught dancing on stage with “pro-Pakatan Harapan” lawyers, such as former president of the Malaysian Bar Ambiga Sreenevasan and prominent activist Siti Kasim.

“Even Umno did not do this… If Umno is replaced by a better government, we can accept. But this government is worse than Umno. We are afraid to let this government have five years to rule.”

Although the PH government has done some good such as allowing for more freedom of expression and paying oil royalties to PAS-ruled Terengganu, its deeds did not outweigh its faults, he added.

The by-election is being contested by BN, M. Manogaran (PH) and two independent candidates, Sallehudin Abd Talib and Wong Seng Yee. – January 23, 2019.