As I have predicted previously, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has returned to the top spot in PAS uncontested.
Previously, there was talk that the top post in PAS would be open to contest.
Hadi’s health has also been poor, which in turn spurred talk as to whether PAS requires a younger and healthier head to lead the party during a period where it will likely need to be more aggressive in order to claw its way to Putrajaya.
Hadi, however, dismissed the idea that his poor health was grounds for stepping down as the number one, saying that he wanted to serve PAS until the day he dies.
“If possible, I want to die while still serving. I’m healthy ... Alhamdulillah, still healthy,” he said when he met reporters in July.
Well, today it seems that 77-year-old Hadi’s wish might indeed come true, for he has managed to retain his position as the president of PAS unopposed.
Not only Hadi, but his deputy Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man – as well as PAS’s three vice-presidents, Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, Idris Ahmad, and Amar Abdullah – also kept their posts for the 2025-2027 term after being returned unopposed ahead of the party’s 71st muktamar.
I had predicted that Hadi would have no trouble defending his post, despite the talk about a leadership change and despite his ill health, based on the number of people who attended the Turun Anwar Rally on July 26.
Despite official records declaring the rally to have drawn only around 18,000 to 20,000, being personally at the rally I estimated the number of attendees to be far larger. Based on my rudimentary accounting, I would estimate the number at around 75,000, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it was as high as 100,000 or more.
Most of the attendees, in my opinion, were PAS members – and most were likely outsiders, people not indigenous to KL.
That Hadi’s leadership was able to mobilise such a large number of people to gather in KL, to me, was an indication of the respect, authority, weight and clout that Hadi commands in PAS.
Seeing the amount of respect, authority, weight and clout he had, it was obvious to me that the biggest winner of the 26 July Turun Anwar Rally was Hadi – for in one fell swoop, he had shown that despite his illness and physical weakness, he was still a juggernaut in PAS. The success of the rally for Hadi would have ensured that any talk of replacing him died out, and any aspirant who wished to lead PAS would decide to wait until the next PAS muktamar before pursuing their ambition.
That the top five posts in PAS were won uncontested, however, is a sign that the undemocratic habit of leaders winning uncontested in Malaysia is still carrying on unabated in all the major parties of the country.
From PKR to PAS, UMNO to DAP, MIC to MCA, all the major political parties in Malaysia have a bad habit of deferring to the top leadership, to the point of allowing at least the number one – and sometimes even the number two, three, four and five – to retain their positions unchallenged.
If challenges occur at the lower level, it is doubtful whether they are organic or merely follow the “chai” list of the top.
The democratic system is tailored to function along the lines of competition. Without competition, the democratic system will almost certainly wither and malfunction.
While on the face of it our country might seemingly operate on a democratic platform, in essence, we might be closer to an authoritarian state or oligarchy, where power is centralised in the hands of a few people at the top, who reign as they wish for as long as they please.
This is a problem, because rather than encourage winners who can offer value to step up to the plate and challenge each other to see who among them has the most value to offer the party or nation, the system we practise today is encouraging losers, who believe that all they have to do is toe the line to those on top to secure victory and garner position.
This problem of encouraging losers to rise is not restricted to PAS.
It is a Malaysian problem that afflicts all of our political parties and likely even our organisations.
It is causing our organisations and even the nation to be led by losers who, being unable to create value, make things happen or move things forward, resort to using their advantages, which the often gain merely by toeing to line or flattering those above them, to exert control over access, resources and platforms, remove challengers and create pointless spectacles – chiefly in the field of race and religion – in order to justify and maintain their position at the top.
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