Hadi and Nasha have mud on their faces

Saad Hashim - Malaysiakini.com 25 June 2009

I refer to the Malaysiakini report PM: 'A religious duty to have unity talks'.

The so-called unity government talks between PAS and Umno or between PAS and BN and later changed to between Pakatan and BN have ended in a fiasco because of either bad 'nawaitu' (intention) or political immaturity on the part of PAS President Haji Hadi Awang and his deputy Nasharuddin Mat Isa.

First, why did Hadi make statements on the matter without the consent of his party and his party elders like Spiritual Leader Haji Nik Aziz. Because unlike Umno, PAS truly practises the concept that the president is merely someone who is only 'first among equals', meaning he cannot ignore the opinions of other leaders.

In Umno, the president is deemed to be the ‘high and mighty’ who can make policies willy-nilly and no one dares to chide or challenge him for making policy announcements without the consent of the Umno supreme council.

Thus we have had controversial policies made by the most powerful Umno president since Abdul Razak, - Dr Mahathir Mohamad like for example on the teaching of science and mathematics in English. I am sure Mahathir can testify to this and he could perhaps enlighten us further by telling us all those disastrous and wasteful policies he had made during his administration. On hindsight, he might want to say that he very much regretted them.

Secondly, did Hadi make this ‘unity talk’ suggestion, later seconded by his sidekick Nasharuddin only following some secret talks with Umno people who had promised Hadi the deputy premiership and senior ministership for Nasharuddin?

Hadi thought he could bulldoze his way with his party and quite naturally, there would be some in the PAS leadership as well as PAS grassroots who would support the idea especially those who perhaps still feel uncomfortable with PAS having to join DAP to form governments in Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Perak.

As they say in politics, you can fool all the people some of the time or the people can always be sweet-talked into making foolish decisions all the time.Thirdly, Hadi and Nasharuddin later insisted that PAS would talk to any party to discuss the country's problems ie, economy, the police, the judiciary, crime, etc.

If that is so, why can't they use the word 'dialogue' and not 'unity government'?And even this harmless overture Hadi and his deputy would have to inform their party leadership as well as their Pakatan partners.

And since when did Umno respect and spend time listening to Hadi and Nasharuddin on how to solve the country's economic problems? Now that the whole farce has come to an end, who has ended up with more mud on their face? Surely it is Hadi and Nasharuddin because whatever you may say, the duo cannot deny that the idea came from them and not from Umno (unless there is clear evidence that Hadi was asked to do it by Umno agents).

At the end of the day, Hadi and Nasharuddin have clearly tarnished the image of their party and strangely this is happening at a time when PAS is enjoying new-found strength and respectability following the last general elections.

Hadi and Nasharuddin have clearly become a little cancer in PAS and worse of all, from now on their partners in Pakatan can't be blamed if they start looking at PAS suspiciously.

Thus PAS would have to act fast by telling them that they are mere mortals and for the sake of the party, they should be brave enough to ‘die’ on their own swords, or else the party would arrange a ‘guillotine’ for them. Also it shouldn't be difficult for them because several PAS leaders have done this before including former past president Asri, Othman Abdullah, Mohamad Nasir, Nakhaie, etc.

Comment: There must be something behind their move as written here. There could have been secret talk between them and 'offer' from Umno men. This is the problem with political immaturity of our leaders. For the sake of personal gain they can easily be bought and sold. Poor PAS and Malays as a whole.