PAS-turned-Amanah politician Nik Omar Nik Abdul Aziz, who has been wowing ceramah listeners with his gentle approach to campaigning, is appealing to the youth to vote for change.

Nik Omar, the Pakatan Harapan candidate for the Chempaka state seat in Kelantan, said change would not happen through GE14 if youth, who make up almost half of the country’s voters this election, did not want change for themselves.

“This change needs to happen from within the youth themselves. They must have the intention and will to change from within,” said the eldest son of PAS’ late spiritual leader Nik Aziz Abdul Nik Mat.

“When we have that will (niat) to change, then we will be confident in the choice we make,” he said, citing a line from the Quran.

“The general election is crucial for the younger generation. The old ones like us are leaving soon. We can only hope, pray, and show the youth a path to change that will benefit and fulfil their aspirations,” he said at a talk at the Pandan Indah PH operations centre yesterday on the aspirations and challenges of young voters.

Nik Omar said PH was the right choice for youths because it had plans for their future and wanted to improve the country’s management and finances.

Voters aged between 21 and 39 make up close to half of the 14 million people who will go to the polls on Wednesday. Young Malay voters make up 3.6 million of them.

Taking questions during the talk about education, Nik Omar said a PH government would ensure that it received the necessary funding to make education a priority for all youths.

Also present at the talk was PH’s Permatang Pauh candidate, Nurul Izzah Anwar.

Nik Omar drew crowds when he did a whirlwind ceramah tour in the Klang Valley over the last two days.

Some Malay voters at the PH rally in Putrajaya on Thursday night said they had come just to hear the Islamic scholar speak.

Nik Omar has stirred up a storm within PAS over his decision to stand on a PH ticket.

Accused of being a traitor to his father, who was revered in PAS, and to the party, Nik Omar has been sidelined by his mother, Tuan Sabariah Tuan Ishak, who has criticised him for betraying Nik Aziz’s legacy.

She is campaigning for her other son, Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz, who is standing for PAS in the Bachok parliamentary seat.

Instead of hitting out directly at critics, Nik Omar gave a short speech at the Putrajaya rally about how Islam embraced racial diversity, in keeping with his father’s belief in political cooperation with other ethnic groups.

Nik Aziz had been supportive of PAS working with PKR and DAP as part of the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat.

But after his death in 2013, that cooperation gradually crumbled, with PAS now competing against its former allies in GE14. – May 5, 2018.