Islam forbids lying but lies to protect party acceptable, say PAS grassroots


Diyana Ibrahim

PAS is shadowed by allegations that its leaders took money from Umno and then lied about it. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, February 16, 2019.

PAS grassroots members are discomfited by the revelations that central committee member Nik Mohamed Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz had lied about his role in an audio recording of him admitting he took money from Umno.

However, many choose to forgive the Bachok MP as he had lied to protect the party.

This view was also shared by a 60-year old, long-time PAS member who said: “No matter what, lying in Islam is not allowed. This is not supposed to happen.”

“But if you have already clarified (it was) to stop the slander, in my opinion, we should accept it, other party members accept it because it was not intentional,” the former Kedah branch committee member told The Malaysian Insight.

Hilmi Khalid, 46, agreed that while most members think Nik Abduh was wrong to lie, his confession is reason to move on.

“I haven’t seen any member explode in anger because of the audio recording or the RM90 million that is being investigated by MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission),” he said.

However, Hilmi warned PAS leaders not to take the members for fools, saying that while they were generally slow to judge, they would not hesitate to demand their leaders’ resignations if wrongdoing was proved.

“A lot of them have labelled PAS members as always siding with their leaders, it’s true there are some like that,” he said.

“But there are many who won’t support their indiscretions; for example, if it is true that they did take 1MDB money then we will ask the leaders or the president to step down,” Hilmi said.

The voice recording went viral last year before the May general election, at a time PAS was under heavy attack by Pakatan Harapan for receiving money from Umno.

Nik Abduh had repeatedly denied the recording was genuine, calling it “nonsense and slander”.

However, the issue recently after Hadi settled his London suit against whistle-blower site Sarawak Report, which ran a story in 2016 alleging PAS had taken money from Umno.

After a police report was lodged, MACC opened a probe into Sarawak Report’s allegations. Several PAS leaders, including Nik Abduh, have had their statements taken.

Central committee member Nik Mohamed Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz’s confession that he lied about his role in an audio recording of him admitting he took money from Umno has shaken the grassroots members, who nonetheless choose to forgive him because he had lied for the sake of the party. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, February 16, 2019.

Earlier this week, PAS secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan confirmed that the voice in the recording was, in fact, Nik Abduh’s.

In a Facebook post, Nik Abduh said he had lied with the blessing of the party’president Abdul Hadi Awang.

The recording is of his speech at an internal meeting. Nik Abduh had also felt justified in lying to protect the confidential nature of the meeting.

His decisions, he said, were shariah-compliant.

Sarawak PAS commissioner Jofri Jaraiee said there were grumblings among party members about Nik Abduh’s “U-turn”, with many questioning his motives.

However, he said most were satisfied with Nik Abduh’s explanation that he had lied to save the party from being further attacked.

“It has been settled with his clarification, they accept his clarification for now,” said Jofri, adding that there are 3,000 PAS members in Sarawak.

“If he had come clean then, it would have become a political agenda to topple PAS, all statements woud have been spun and taken out of context,” he said.

“That was how PAS won Terengganu in GE14 and got to keep Kelantan, so it was the right decision to deny it then,” – February 16, 2019.


Sign up or sign in here to comment.


Comments


  • Party above Rakyat is definitely not acceptable.

    Posted 7 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • A lie is a lie. To disgrace he merciful god that it will forgive PAS but not the rest of the county is delusion

    Posted 7 years ago by Vini sathest · Reply

  • What religion accept a lie in the guise of a party survival but the actual act is more to forgive party leaders in lying to enjoy the ill gotten wealth as long the kafirs do not get their hands on it. Something is totally wrong in such religion and only fools will accept such rubbish teaching for self consolations. No wonder the viral going around is that whenever there is such religion in any countries it is bound with troubles as such religion in all the guise of write up of being compassionate , merciful and knows all is unable to a sound reasoning and discussion for advancement. Conclusively it is selfish in act and hypocrisy in thoughts.

    Posted 7 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • No wonder they worked to support corruption. They have no moral bearings. A deviant party which should be banned from politics

    Posted 7 years ago by Michael Raj · Reply

  • Please show me where in Quran is such doctrine of lying.

    Posted 7 years ago by Awang Bilis · Reply

  • What stupidity???!! Lying is lying!! What do they not understand about the meaning of LYING? Dungus!

    Posted 7 years ago by Kampung Boy · Reply

  • Disgraceful morals. Other cannot but when its them its halal.

    Posted 7 years ago by Kenneth Tan · Reply

  • Lie to protect party is acceptable? Of course. But stop hiding behind islam . PAS is just a political party. No different than any other political party - MCA, MIC, UNMO, etc. All the same

    Posted 7 years ago by NA Bayezid · Reply

  • In all seriousness please quote the reference in the Koran that allows telling a lie. I stand by Surah 4, Al Nisa Ayat 85: Whoever recommends and helps a good cause becomes a partner therein; and whoever recommends and helps in evil cause, shares in its burden: and God has power over all things. Telling a lie is truly WRONG and EVIL

    Posted 7 years ago by Citizen Pencen · Reply

  • So PAS took RM90m from UMNO but it is okay to lie to protect the party. What happened to the remaining RM110m? Well Najib took billions into his own account to protect his party - can his lies be declared halal as well?

    Posted 7 years ago by Roger 5201 · Reply

  • So suing SR for slander is only a red herring. PAS lied about the RM90m. Did PAS lie about the RM110m as well? Is that also halal to protect the party?

    Posted 7 years ago by Roger 5201 · Reply

  • Being a Muslim since birth for almost 8 decades, I must admit that there one unique thing we Malaysian Muslims have given the world. Look at what was permissible during P. Ramlee & Saloma's era of Islam is not accepted in today's Islam. Our parents' era of Islam was so different from today's era of Islam. This unique aspect has slowly but surely now progressed from physical aspect to some basic issues like corruption and telling lies. If we study about religions in the world, we will notice most religions except Islam has shed the physical aspect. The sad thing is that whenever I visit my parents' graves, I shed tears whether they would have pave passed today's physical aspect of Islam.

    Posted 7 years ago by Citizen Pencen · Reply

    • I am coming to 60, and too miss the good time at Kampung Parit Besar where all folks were free to mingle, eat and drink and free to chat and laugh together.

      Posted 7 years ago by Tanahair Ku · Reply

  • Please do not used Islam in your defend statement its just show how you stood so low and best to come up clean. Your move clearly shows the similarity of the former occupant of Putrajaya but at least he battle it out in the court while you pull out and yet saying all is good and its acceptable to lie. How low can you be??

    Posted 7 years ago by Teruna Kelana · Reply

  • I guess its a white lie for them. a white dot on a green background. HOLY! it's their party emblem!

    Posted 7 years ago by Gerald Lau · Reply