An uneasy truce in PAS - picking up the pieces

It was unprecedented - the normally well-composed Nik Aziz losing his cool, lashing out at his deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa angrily, and 10 PAS MPs pledging their support for the spiritual leader. The signs were clear. Not just that, there was even talk of not putting up posters of party president Hadi Awang in a by-election. Something unheard of, until now.

It was clear that the two top PAS leaders, who had earlier supported moves for unity talks with Umno, had little choice but to retreat. The resentment was just too great. Their Pakatan Rakyat allies, DAP and PKR, were also not amused at the power play with even talk of forming a unity government, at the expense of the opposition.

The readiness of the two PAS leaders to take a different path has obviously gone down badly. It would be hard for them to regain the confidence of their allies. The relationship would never be the same again as it cannot be forgive and forget. Sheer political ambitions of possible ministerial positions, walking along Putrajaya's corridors of power, and carving out the different states seems to have ruled their heads, as much as they wish to deny.

Hadi's constant berate against having more non-Muslim elected representatives, as quoted in the Harakah, also revealed the dark side of him. His intolerance may be overlooked by fanatical supporters of PR but the fact is that he has become uncomfortable at the huge number of Sabah and Sarawak MPs, many of whom do not share his religious fervour, even if they are Muslims.

Husam Musa also found out that certain things would never change in PAS. PAS has never hidden its Islamic agenda. The conservatives voiced out loud that the top two posts should be reserved for ulamas. No matter how much reforms Husam can bring, he did not have a beard, as he himself said after he lost.

Within PAS, the party leaders have plenty of damage control to do now. Hadi and Nasharuddin cannot ignore the many leaders in Kelantan who were wiped out in the party polls. They may have put on a united front, blaming Umno and the media for their own weaknesses but the fact remains that there are still many unhappy faces in the party, who are still trying to make sense of the events of the past one week.

But they need to explore further. Have these talks with Umno been going on informally for sometime, which perhaps prompted them to take a step further. That's however academic now because the objections against the proposed unity talks has been strong. Still, the question is whether Hadi and Nasharuddin have taken two steps back as a strategy and temporarily shelved the idea for the time being. It looks like an uneasy truce.