Should I gnash my teeth and pull my hair out in anger and frustration at Utusan Malaysia’s “garbage of all garbage” write-up accusing me of being a mastermind in PAS party elections?

Or should I just dismiss it with all the contempt which all calumny, lies and falsehoods deserve?

Indeed a classic “do not know whether to laugh or cry” situation!

Penned by Utusan editors hiding behind the pseudonym Awang Selamat, the “garbage of all garbage” must be read by all Malaysians to forewarn them of the terminal mental disease condition afflicting certain powerful personalities walking the corridors of power in the Najib Razak administration. Hence it is quoted in full as follows:

Siapa paling puas?

Bisik-Bisik Mingguan

PELBAGAI analisis berlegar berikutan keputusan pemilihan Pas sempena Muktamar Agung parti itu. Kekalahan golongan ulama paling hangat diperkatakan.

Yang terserlah kejayaannya ialah kumpulan pro ketua pembangkang, Anwar Ibrahim atau Anwarinas yang diketahui menjadi pendokong aspirasi DAP.

Awang tidak terkejut dengan apa yang berlaku itu. Desas-desus mengenai gerakan menjayakan pengaruh Anwar sudah kedengaran sejak tahun lalu. Dengan kata lain, perancangan mengenainya telah lama dibuat melibatkan PKR dan DAP untuk mempengaruhi keputusan pemilihan Pas. Maka orang yang paling puas dan gembira ialah Anwar dan pemimpin utama DAP, Lim Kit Siang. Kedua-duanya boleh senyum lebar dalam tidur kerana percaturan mereka menjadi kenyataan.

Sudah banyak kali Awang menulis bahawa orang yang paling berkuasa dalam Pas sebenarnya adalah Anwar. Kedua, Mursyidul Am Pas, Nik Aziz Nik Mat dan ketiga barulah presidennya, Hadi Awang. Apatah lagi, Hadi telah lama hilang cengkaman. Beliau menjadi Presiden Pas paling lemah sehingga elemen luar mudah meresapi dan mencorakkan parti. Belum pernah berlaku dalam sejarah, Pas begitu tercemar teruk dengan pengaruh asing.

Hadi seperti juga Nik Aziz tunduk kepada strategi Kit Siang dan Anwar. Kedaulatan Islam bukan menjadi tonggak perjuangan sebaliknya ego dan nafsu politik menguasai diri. Isu moral Anwar selaku ketua pembangkang langsung tidak disentuh oleh Hadi dalam ucapan dasar yang membawa mesej Pas berkompromi kepada salah laku seks yang berulang. Awang percaya takkan ada parti Islam lain di dunia yang berpendirian seperti Pas dalam isu moral yang serius seperti itu.

Hadi juga melepaskan kesempatan terbaik untuk mengupas isu-isu kritikal berkaitan kepentingan Islam, sebaliknya mengalih perhatian dengan menghentam UMNO. Beliau telah memberikan isyarat yang salah kepada seluruh umat Islam yang mengharapkan pemikiran strategik Pas demi kekuatan politik Islam. Ternyata Hadi dan Nik Aziz terus membenarkan Pas diperalatkan oleh DAP yang tidak mahu Islam dominan menerusi agenda memperjuangkan kesamarataan. Ia adalah penghinaan dan sabotaj kepada agama Islam itu sendiri.

Namun Awang lega kerana ada beberapa tokoh Pas terutama Ketua Dewan Ulama, Harun Taib masih berani mempertahankan jati diri Pas serta tidak mahu parti itu mengikut telunjuk komponen dalam pakatan pembangkang. Biarpun golongan ulama kelihatan kecundang, Awang percaya mereka akan bangkit kemudian hari. Masih ramai ahli dan penyokong Pas di akar umbi yang mendokong ulama sebagai teras perjuangan. Majoriti umat Islam di negara ini juga sedia membuat perhitungan terhadap Pas pada pilihan raya umum akan datang sebagaimana beberapa pilihan raya kecil sebelum ini. Tidak sukar. Apatah lagi terhadap parti yang makin gagal membawa denyut nadi umat Islam.

The allegations by Awang Selamat, whether against me or Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, are so preposterous and so fantastic flights of fevered imaginations that they don’t deserve any detailed rebuttal except contemptuous dismissal.

Utusan has reached a new height in venom and vituperation in its wild fulmination today – even putting in the shade Utusan’s irresponsible, seditious and treasonous “DAP-Christian Malaysia” bogey on its front-page last month!

The saving grace is that Utusan’s editors and their real masters are preaching to a diminishing audience (swiftly taking UMNO down the slippery slope to bankruptcy, both political and financial with plummeting circulation ) – which probably explains their screaming desperation by the day.

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak spent RM70 million public funds to enlist APCO expertise to promote 1Malaysia – which is being sabotaged everyday by UMNO and Barisan Nasional component parties with the Utusan’s ”garbage of all garbage” today the latest example.

It is the Pakatan Rakyat comprising DAP, PKR and PAS which symbolises the real 1Malaysia – uniting Malaysians regardless of race, religion, geography or socio-economic status – while Barisan Nasional led by Umno hegemon and the impotent and irrelevant 12 other BN component parties which represent a discredited, divided and dispirited nation-building concept!

Otherwise, how could DAP be accused by BN component parties like MCA and Gerakan of having sold out the Malaysian Chinese, Indians and non-Muslims to PAS while UMNO through Utusan is accusing PAS of being stooge and puppet of DAP?

Are the UMNO and BN leaders crazy, schizophrenic or just outright political opportunists and knaves?

Is it because in Barisan Nasional, there is one master and the 12 other component parties in BN are just digits that everyone in BN believes that the PR is similarly constructed – that there is also one master and the rest mere serfs in PR?
They cannot be more wrong.

Pakatan Rakyat is a coalition of equals – and there is no master-and-serf relationship as in Barisan Nasional.

Pakatan Rakyat has come a long way since our establishment two years ago. Malaysians have to be reminded that there was no Pakatan Rakyat during the seminal 2008 general elections as PR was formed after the 308 political tsunami.

Each of the three PR parties – DAP, PKR and PAS – have been developing in the past two years to be better prepared for the greatest political challenge awaiting all Malaysians: the 13th general elections.

Congratulations to the newly-elected PAS leaders. The time has come to deepen political understanding and relationship of DAP, PKR and PAS at all levels, including having regular bilateral apart from multilateral discussions – such as DAP leadership having regular bilateral discussions with PKR and PAS leaderships as well.

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Utusan says Hadi, Nik Aziz forced PAS ulama out
By Shannon Teoh
June 05, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 — The Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia has ironically blamed top PAS ulamas Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat for the ulama faction losing top posts in the party elections over the weekend.

The Malay daily’s weekend edition Mingguan Malaysia said today the president and spiritual leader respectively had caused delegates to vote for progressive leaders instead of the conservative ulama who favour cooperation with Umno.

News editor Zulkiflee Bakar wrote that Abdul Hadi’s policy speech which attacked the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) and focused on taking over government with PAS allies in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had encouraged delegates to vote for “pro professional” candidates.

“Abdul Hadi was unaware that his speech would raise the spirits of the pro professionals to control the party. Talking about a welfare state gave the impression that ulama leaders were no longer needed as PAS has stopped fighting for an Islamic state,” he wrote.

The editorial added that the Marang MP’s drive to ready PAS for a general election expected within the year had further influenced delegates to ensure that professionals took up this responsibility.

“The ulama in PAS are perceived as weak and unable to face BN in the coming general election. This means the ulama will not have any power or role except to follow whatever strategies that are implemented by the professionals,” it said.

Mohamad Sabu won the party deputy presidency yesterday with 420 votes, leading a group of progressive leaders to counter conservatives who prefer to link up with Umno.

The Penang-born Mohamad defeated incumbent Nasharudin Mat Isa, who received only 224 votes, and vice-president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, who came second with 399 votes. A total of 1,100 delegates voted in this year’s party elections.

In the vice-presidential race, incumbent Salahuddin Ayub took top spot with 753 votes, Datuk Husam Musa was second with 660 votes while another incumbent Datuk Mahfuz Omar kept his post with 616 votes.

The Umno newspaper also blamed spiritual leader Nik Aziz for ensuring that Nasharudin, part of the ulama faction, would fail to defend his No 2 post that has been held by ulama since 1981.

“Nik Aziz failed to advice his nephew Tuan Ibrahim to withdraw to avoid a split vote for ulama. Nik Aziz does not like Nasharudin for his links in trying to form a unity government with Umno even though it is for Malay and Muslim unity,” it said.

Zulkiflee said that the election results would make Abdul Hadi powerless to stop the “wave of political power” by PAS leaders who are loyal to PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

“This is all due to the mistake of the president who appeared to endorse this wave through his opening speech,” he wrote.

The party poll was billed as a contest between the party’s conservative ulama faction and the professionals (dubbed the Erdogans in a reference to progressive Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan).

The Erdogans are said to strongly back a coalition with former deputy prime minister Anwar rather than accept negotiations with Umno.