Malaysia's Islamist Party Bogged Down By Internal Divisions, Money Politics

While Malaysia's coalition based system of forming governments played a role, it is the perceived anti-monarchist and radical Islamist stance of PAS under its current President Abdul Hadi Awang that played the decisive role, with the 77-year old sickly cleric being widely despised by not only the country's heredity Rulers who swear in Prime Ministers, the non-Muslim and moderate Muslims and critically those in the East Malaysia states of Sabah and Sarawak who are extremely adverse to PAS and Hadi himself.
 
This missed chance is especially painful for top PAS leaders, who having tasted federal power briefly for the first time between 2020 and 2022 under the short-lived Prime Ministerships of Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri Yaakob, are seeking a return to federal power for the privileges and potential lucrative perks opportunities they had access too.
 
Efforts to push aside Hadi have steadily been intensifying within the party with many of his supporters seeking to undermine him instead. Recognising his precarious position in the party, his own ailing health and inability to form a government through back-door tactics that he used in 2020, Hadi made an expected announcement to not contest the party's upcoming polls in September.
 

"It is understood that the Marang MP expressed his intention to the party's top leadership during a retreat in Terengganu last weekend...According to a source, this revelation opened the door to internal discussions within the ulama (religious scholars) faction, which is currently working to persuade deputy president Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man to take over."

However, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man is widely seen as nothing but a continuation of the same tired brand of divisive and dangerous politics that Hadi is known for by realists within the party. His poor performance Minister of Environment and Water between 30 August 2021 – 24 November 2022 saw him being widely ridiculed for claiming that Malaysia is not vulnerable to climate change as well as being excluded the Climate Action Summit in 2021, have exposed him as an ineffective minister and it is not expected that he would be able to serve as an effective prime minister.
 
Various factions in PAS are instead attempting to position Terengganu Chief Minister (CM) Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar as a candidate for the post of president, with a likely showdown at the party polls expected between him and Tuan Ibrahim, but Ahmad Samsuri comes with his own baggage namely corruption particularly through the theft of funds meant for flood mitigation projects and the construction of hotels in environmentally sensitive areas.
 

"Facing them is a more likely PM candidate, Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, who has been promoted by the "professional faction" over his seemingly greater focus on worldly affairs as compared to the more radical religious fanatics in PAS. However, "Mr Clean" as some in PAS call Samsuri is anything but clean, having enriched himself and his cronies through the theft of funds meant for flood mitigation projects in Terengganu,"

Not only does Ahmad Samsuri have a poor reputation among the people of Terengganu for a string of successive administrative failures that have left the state in a condition of underdevelopment and for taking trips abroad when the state is affected by severe flooding, he is said to be quietly buying key voters blocs and division heads in the party as he paves the way to take over as president, strengthening the culture of vote buying and potentially tarnishing its image among its supporters.
 
His associates include a discredited businessman Hazimi Abd Hamid, who is alleged to be Ahmad Samsuri’s crony and key money launderer, attempting to wash stolen flood mitigation funds through various business including cigar lounges and an aborted attempt to cultivate ketum, a hallucinogenic plant banned under the country's anti-drug laws.

"Money meant for flood mitigation was diverted to Hazimi who then opened up a number of businesses including cigar lounges and other businesses... Hazimi also attempted to launder more of the stolen funds by opening up a ketum farm,"

While this is not the first time money has been used by PAS to buy votes among the public as it did during the 2022 elections, it does mark an escalation of money politics within the party, something that it previously used effectively against its rival UMNO.
 

"PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has defended the party’s distribution of cash to voters during the 15th general election (GE15), claiming that it was a charitable act and hence, not prohibited by electoral law,"

Ahmad Samsuri, while seemingly a more effective politician and administrator than his rivals is mediocre by national standards. He is likely to win the party elections, but under his leadership, PAS is set to further fall into the kind of political corruption that has destroyed many other Malaysian parties and will likely lead to its rejection by voters in the next general elections.
 
His association with questionable individuals, including those on trial for fraud do not auger well for the future of PAS, which had until now at least been able to downplay allegations of corruption but this is likely to change and having reached its high water mark is expected to recede back to its stronghold states in Kelantan and Terengganu.