KOTA BHARU,Sept 14: PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said the party remained strong and intact despite being tested with various challenges, including being betrayed by those who had been with the party before.
In this regard, he explained that PAS is not just a ‘stopover’ which they can leave to pursue something else that purportedly would benefit them, whenever the party is being threatened.
“They made PAS a ‘stopover’ because they wanted an easy victory, but PAS remained intact and never fell. PAS is mature in politics because we have cooperated with many parties and despite being abandoned, we remain consistent and continue to mature,” he said.
Hadi was making his winding-up speech at the PAS general assembly in Pengkalan Chepa here yesterday.
He said that PAS cooperated with Semangat 46 for the 1990 general election and won in Kelantan. Semangat 46 was later dissolved, but PAS remained strong in the state until now. He said: “… because of our consistency, we remain strong and finally we took over Terengganu and together with the Perikatan Nasional, in Kedah.”
He said PAS would continue to explain about the party’s struggle so that the people, especially non-Muslims, could understand the situation and not make interpretations that Islam is old-fashioned.
“This approach takes time and it is very challenging. It is for them to really understand,” he said
PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the allocation and distribution of electoral seats at the next general election should not be turned into a polemic.
He said Perikatan Nasional had set up a seat distribution consultative committee consisting five people from each party. “In our first meeting, Alhamdulillah, the basics of the discussion are looking positive,” he said.
