PAS INFO CHIEF: HADI MISQUOTED
President didn’t say he wanted such a cabinet line-up, says Nasruddin
PAS has clarified that its president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang did not say that he had envisioned an all Malay-Muslim Cabinet for Malaysia.
Its information chief Nasruddin Hassan, in clarifying a New
Straits Times’ online report on Monday which quoted Hadi as saying so, said Hadi had instead said that he recognised the position and role of non-Muslims in a government.
Nasruddin said the first paragraph of the article — “Pas has
envisioned a Malaysian Cabinet line-up to consist only of Malays as they are the majority race, party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said.” — was inaccurate.
“There was not one sentence or conclusion in Pas president’s ar-
ticle stated that all members of the cabinet must be Malay Muslims,” he said.
Harakah Daily had on Dec 22, published an article written by Hadi titled “Mengapa kalau Islam tidak boleh?” in which he penned his thoughts on Islamic politics and governance.
Nasruddin said Pas had stressed on the importance and need for Malay Muslims to be the core instead (with the prime minister as Wazirul Tafwid) in the country’s political system and administrative structure based on Islamic political fiqh.
“In turn, the Pas president endorsed and recognised the positions and roles of the non-Muslims in a government,” he said.
Nasruddin said from this, it was clear that Hadi’s message was that Islam was very open about the appointment of non-Muslims as a cabinet minister, compared to modern political party system which only accepted those who share similar ideologies.
He said Hadi had also stressed that in the aspects of politics, Islam was firm that top leadership that formulates and guards the (country’s) policies must be Muslims but accepts non-Muslims in the aspects of their expertise and management.
Nasruddin also clarified although Hadi had written that “Islam had outlined that a national leader and his cabinet members must be of Islamic faith and come from the most influential race,” he did not mean that all cabinet members must be Muslims.
He said the line was instead in reference to cabinet members who are to be delegated to selected ministries which portfolio must be undertaken by Muslims, according to Islamic fiqh methods.
“This is based on the division of ministries under Islamic political fiqh to Wizarah al-Tafwidh (delegation ministry) and Wizarah alTanfiz (executive ministry),” he said adding that if read as a whole, Hadi’s article was easy to comprehend.
Nasruddin also expressed hope that no quarters would further misconstrue or manipulate the party’s opinions and stand on this matter as Pas understood the reality of a multiracial society in this country.