IN Terengganu, PAS members stick to one tune: anything negative about president Abdul Hadi Awang and the party is to be dismissed. 

So, despite growing evidence that the party president is pushing the party closer to the nemesis, Umno, day by day and the election strategy of contesting all seats in the peninsula could lead to a hammering in GE14, try telling that to the PAS faithful in the east coast state.

“None of it is true. We’ve known ‘Ayah Chik’ a long time,” said Abdul Rahman Mustafa, a PAS supporter in Kemasik, Kemaman, using the nickname they have for Hadi. 

“PAS members are used to hearing such stories,” said Rahman, referring to growing speculation that Hadi has forged a close relationship with Umno president Najib Razak.

Ever since the party left the opposition alliance and severed ties with PKR and DAP, PAS has been accused of working with Umno.

Adding fuel to this speculation is the emergence of an audio recording purportedly of a PAS leader admitting that the party received funds from Umno during the 2016 Sarawak elections.

PAS’ detractors said the person on the recording is its central committee member Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Adbul Aziz, but the latter has denied this.

Rahman said the recording was manufactured by PAS’ enemies. The tactic, he said, is similar to past claims, such as that the party has no professional leaders and that it labelled other Muslims infidels.  

His sentiments are shared by other Terengganu PAS members.

For Sulaiman Mohd, dealing with such accusations is part and parcel of being in an Islamic movement such as PAS.

“Many will be unhappy if Islam is established. It is all part of a test from God,” he said at the Rusila mosque in Marang, Terengganu, after one of Hadi’s weekly religious talks.

During The Malaysian Insight’s visit, the crowd at the Friday sermon appeared to be around 1,000 people, a sharp drop compared with 2013, when the sermon used to attract an audience of about 5,000.

‎‎Other PAS members are upset that the audio recording has been turned into a controversy by Amanah president Mohamad Sabu, who was himself a victim of something similar when he was in the Islamist party.

“When people were spreading a recording of his sex scandal, he became silent and did not own up to it. Now he is busy doing the same thing to someone else,” said Suhaimi Said of Kuala Terengganu.

In 1994, an audio recording surfaced of an explicit phone conversation between an alleged PAS leader and a married woman. The man was purportedly Mohamad, who was then PAS Youth chief. Mohamad denied this.

Hadi’s fortress

Hadi is expected to contest in the Marang parliamentary seat and the Rhu Redang state seat in the next elections.

Hadi has contested in Marang since 1986 and lost twice, in 1986 and 2004.

Recent studies by think-tanks show that PAS will lose heavily in Terengganu because of multi-cornered contests between itself, PH and BN.   

One study by Dr Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) found that PAS would only win two state seats, compared with the 14 it currently holds.   

Another study by Invoke revealed that in multi-candidate fights, PAS would lose all its seats in Terengganu while BN is expected to emerge the winner.

The Islamist party’s activists, however, are confident of its chances and does not consider PH a serious rival.

“These analysts can say what they want. For us, we sit among the grassroots and we are in touch with the momentum down here,” said Terengganu PAS commissioner I Satiful Bahri Mamat.

“We know the level of support towards PAS. Our findings suggest that even if we are in three-cornered fights, we will still be the choice of voters,” said Satiful.

“PH is not dominant in Terengganu. We are only worried about BN as they are our true enemies.” – March 25, 2018.