Published: Saturday November 7, 2009 MYT 10:49:00 AM
Updated: Saturday November 7, 2009 MYT 7:36:53 PM

Hadi: PAS committed to Pakatan (Updates)

KUALA LUMPUR: PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang said the party will no longer pursue the issue of unity government with Umno.

He said the party would instead work to make Pakatan Rakyat stronger as it was proven that the coalition 'can bring changes to the people."

"The seminar has reached its objective. The issue of unity government (with Umno) does not arise anymore," he told a press conference after the seminar to strengthen the party Saturday.

Earlier, in his closing remarks, Hadi called on members to 'handle provocation with a big heart.'

Like a football team, he said, members should be like professional players and not "pemain kampung".

"They may tell us to fire our manager, fire our players but we are not even done with the first half of the game.

"People can give harsh views on us, one that stabs the heart but no matter how angry we are we need to face them intelligently," he said.

The resolutions passed at the meeting are:

1 continue to strengthen Pakatan Rakyat and work on preparing for the next general election;
2 identify areas of non-Muslim voters to aggressively activate PAS clubs;
3 improve the delivery system and channel directives to branches;
4 PAS Youth to regain the confidence of young voters;
5 launch an action plan to strengthen 'PAS For All' campaign.

In his opening address, Hadi said PAS would remain committed to Pakatan Rakyat without sacrificing its ideology.

He said PAS would continue to perform as a 'party that preaches' (party dakwah) and the relationship between PAS and its Pakatan members 'strong yet flexible.'

“This strategy has been successful in stopping Barisan Nasional to a point that they were experiencing a crisis," he told some 1000 delegates.

At the same time, Hadi said, PAS needed to strengthen itself in order to win the votes of the Muslims as well as non-Muslims.

“We need to get the votes of non-Muslims as this is the reality of a multiracial society,” he said, adding that the party needed to practice an open policy according to the concept of dakwah (preach) and syariah (Islamic law).

He reminded the delegates to be mature in accepting criticisms.

“When PAS is in the limelight, there will be ‘fans’ who will comment. There are the good ones and the bad ones and we need to be a mature party to accept the criticisms for the sake of strengthening the party,” he said.

The seminar was called after PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat called for an extraordinary general meeting to thrash the leadership issue over unity talks with Umno and the future of the party in Pakatan.

Nik Aziz, however, left the seminar soon after listening to Hadi's address, citing health reasons.

He was earlier hospitalised at the National Heart Institute for fatigue.

Nik Aziz had been in Kuala Lumpur since Monday to attend the Rulers'Conference.