Of Asri and Hadi

Was Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang merely exercising his "presidential" right when making decisions seen as "detrimental" to Pakatan Rakyat? Like those he made during the Selangor menteri besar issue – to cite one of several examples.

Does Hadi, the PAS president, have wide ranging authority to act on his own? Without having to consult others in his party? And does he have veto power?

Of late, Hadi has been accused even within PAS of being "hard headed" and refusing to "listen to advice" or simply "dictatorial" (bear in mind that Hadi is not without his band of PAS supporters).

But before that, let's take a quick look at one of the party's former president - the late Tan Sri Asri Muda.

Asri was president from 1969 to 1982. Under his leadership "Islamic" PAS changed its outlook towards Malay nationalism. And it was Asri who held talks with the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, who was then leading the ruling Alliance (Perikatan) coalition, to enable the opposition PAS to become a component of Barisan Nasional in 1974.

But as a BN component, PAS fared badly in the 1978 general election and Asri was heavily criticised by members. Problems also cropped up in Kelantan which eventually saw PAS leaving BN.

PAS maintains until this day that they were "played out" by Umno and "kicked out" of the Federal ruling coalition. 

Spurred by the Islamic revolution in Iran, ulamaks emerged as a force in PAS and it was no surprise that it was the ulamak group that ousted Asri in 1982. And in came the "kepimpinan ulamak" concept.

Asri formed a new political party Hamim without much success and, eventually, in 1988 he joined Umno. He remained an Umno member until he passed away in 1992.

Needless to say Asri, or for that matter anything Asri, was barely talked about in PAS. He was left to be forgotten. Those who did speak had nothing nice to say.

Against such a backdrop, when PAS held a seminar recently in dedication to Asri it raised many an eye brow especially that of Sayuti Omar, veteran political writer, acknowledged by many as an "expert" on PAS affairs.

Sayuti couldn't help but ask since when did PAS care about Asri? And he went on to say that one of the speakers at the seminar was none other than Datuk Mustapa Ali, the current PAS secretary-general.

According to Sayuti, apart from paying tribute to the late Asri, Mustapa also spoke on the time Asri as party president, bestowed with "special powers" acted on his own and made decisions without earlier informing other leaders.

And it seem Mustafa also told the seminar Asri was "allowed" to do so for the sake of the position of the Malays and political power. In other words as long as it was for the good of the "bangsa" and "agama", it was alright to do what Asri did.

Hence, Sayuti asked the following: Was Mustafa implying that what Hadi had been doing (ie. "decisions which causes headaches," said Sayuti) is nothing new as Asri had done it much earlier? And that Hadi was or is right to decide on his own for what he sees as for the good of the community and religion? In short, was Mustapa using Asri's past action to justify Hadi's?

Which brings us back to the earlier poser with regards to veto power and presidential  rights.

A PAS insider said the party constitution was in fact amended to "curb Asri's power". But there are PAS leaders and members alike who feel the amendment then only involved  the appointment of office bearers, ie. members of the central committee. And other amendment made over the years did not touch on the powers of the president.

As such there are PAS people who say their president "still has veto power" quoting provisions which give the president authority to act accordingly, in order to safe guard religion, community and party.

Yet several lawyers in the current PAS fraternity see it in another light, reminding everybody in the party that "as the constitution stands, the president does not have veto power and his power must be excercised as the head of the executive".

And as such, say the lawyers, "the president shall not make decisions disregarding the executive, much less to turn over decisions achieved through consensus in the central committee."

It's plain enough as to what these PAS lawyers are pointing at.

Anyway, as for Mustapa,... well, his drawing of the Asri-Hadi parallel must have prompted a follower of Sayuti's  blog to comment as follows: "Hadi will face the same fate of Asri. Whatever happened to Asri will happen to Hadi."

This is surely something all the president's men would not like to hear.

I can only end by saying Waullahulam. Only Allah knows. – February 6, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.