PETALING JAYA,Mar 19: The conspicuous absence of the prime minister’s special envoy to the Middle East, Abdul Hadi Awang during his official visit to the UAE and Saudi Arabia recently has raised some questions.
Some are wondering how such a key official for the region with a ministerial status was left out of the entourage when he should have been at the forefront of Muhyiddin Yassin’s week-long visit.
Amanah communications director, Khalid Samad said social media has been abuzz on this matter with various theories being bandied about which was not healthy for Malaysia’s relationship with the countries in the region.
He said one of the speculations is that the UAE declined to give him a visa on the grounds that he is a member of an Islamic organisation which is still listed as a terrorist outfit by some countries in the region.
“It is not fair to make wild accusations but the government should not ignore the questions raised either. It is important for the prime minister’s office to clarify this and put a stop to the unhealthy debate in social media.
“If indeed a visa has been denied on this ground, the government must come clean and tell Malaysians the truth,” he told FMT.
The Shah Alam MP said that if Hadi is not allowed to enter certain countries there, then it defeats the whole purpose of appointing him as the special envoy for the region.
It has been reported that Hadi was the vice-president of the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), which had been declared a terror group by the Anti-Terror Quarter of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
The reports described the entity as an organisation working to promote terrorism through the exploitation of Islamic discourse and its use as a cover to facilitate various terrorist activities.
PAS and Hadi have denied that this outfit is a terror organisation, saying that Malaysia has not listed it as such.
