IT’S common to find leaders who feel lonely at the top. But for long-time PAS leaders Mahfuz Omar and Dr Syed Azman Ahmad Nawawi, it’s also lonely in the middle, too.

Both are facing calls to resign from the Islamist party – from other leaders, colleagues and grassroots members.

Yet, Mahfuz and Syed Azman are digging in and standing their ground, until they are sacked from the party they have served all their political lives.

When met, the two told The Malaysian Insight that they want to heal the rift between PAS and Pakatan Harapan, so that they can all face Barisan Nasional in the 14th general election as a united opposition.

“I am not bothered that my own president wants to chase me out,” said Mahfuz, who is in his third term as the Pokok Sena, Kedah, lawmaker.

“This is normal in an Islamic struggle. Prophet Muhammad himself was chased out by his family when he started preaching about Islam,” said the 59-year-old member of parliament.

Mahfuz has been vocal about the need for his party to mend ties with PH, successor to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition of which PAS was a member until it broke away in 2015.

PH was restarted with DAP, PKR, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and Amanah, a splinter party made up of former PAS leaders.

PAS leaders, such as deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, have said the party will not join the coalition or work with DAP or Amanah.

Instead, PAS’s current leaders insist that the party will form a third opposition bloc with Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia.

“If I do not succeed in bringing PAS closer to PH, I am committed to bringing its leaders, members and voters back on this ‘track’,” he said.

Mahfuz’s compatriot, Syed Azman of Terengganu, is also drawing flak for his pro-PH stand.

“We are under enormous pressure from PAS. But I will continue my struggle to align with PH even if PAS does not want to,” said the Batu Burok assemblyman.

Syed Azman said other PAS leaders, such as Kubang Rotan and Anak Bukit assemblymen Nasir Mustapha and Amiruddin Hamzah, are also being mocked for being friendly with PH.

Mahfuz and Syed Azman are now used to the public statements against them from their party.

Syed Azman was asked to leave after he tabled a motion in the Terengganu assembly last month to discuss why the government had not enforced its 2003 shariah penal code or hudud.

The action was seen by Terengganu PAS leaders as an attempt to embarrass the party.

“They don’t own PAS,” said Syed Azman, when asked how PAS leaders were forcing him out of the party.

Mahfuz was also told by PAS vice-president Mohamad Amar Abdullah to leave the party after he accused PAS of trying to “have its cake and eat it, too” by attempting to court both PH and Barisan Nasional.

He said he could not care whether he was picked as a candidate in the next general election or whether PAS will finally sack him at its annual assembly later this month. – April 13, 2017.