KUALA LUMPUR, 4 June 2009: The PAS Supporters Club or Kelab Penyokong PAS (KPP) for non-Muslims has been separated into Indian and Chinese clubs, but this has not received final approval from the party’s central working committee.
Outgoing PAS Youth chief Salahuddin Ayub said the separation was a trial to find the best mechanism for administering the club, which could be elevated into a wing in about a year’s time.
Salahuddin “The separation has not been formalised. It is still at an early stage … It will be looked into after this muktamar,” Salahuddin said on the sidelines of the PAS Youth muktamar in Taman Melewar, Gombak, today.
The supporters’ club has grown in numbers since its founding in 2004 to about 20,000 registered members nationwide, including in Sarawak.
It was founded as a mixed-race club but at the KPP national-level convention in Klang on 30 May 2009, PAS national unity bureau chief Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa announced that the club had been divided into Indian Malaysian and Chinese Malaysian sections.
The club comes under the national unity bureau’s jurisdiction.
However, the move to separate club members according to race has been criticised by some KPP members who feel that doing so would make PAS no different from Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN). Objections were apparently raised on the matter at the recent convention.
Salahuddin said that of KPP’s 20,000 members, the majority were Indian Malaysians but that support from Chinese Malaysians was gradually increasing, especially in Perak after the BN’s takeover of the state government.
PAS as a whole was receptive to the idea of admitting non-Muslim supporters into the party through a formalised wing, but Salahuddin said finer details had yet to be worked out.
These included voting rights and membership status, matters that would be studied by a technical committee that was formed in April.
PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat has given his blessings to elevating the club to wing status.
KPIs
Salahuddin, who is vying for a spot in the PAS vice-president’s race, also said he planned to introduce Key Performance Indicators for PAS Youth leaders in the future.
He said leaders should not be chosen based on how popular they were or their oratorical skills at ceramah, but whether they had ideas on the economy and other current issues.
At the Youth muktamar today, the 265 delegates voted to elect the wing’s 12 committee members. Voting began at 10.30am and closed at 12.30pm. The results will be announced later tonight.
Azman Shapawi There were no elections for the top posts, which were won uncontested. Nasrudin Hassan is the new Youth chief, Azman Shapawi Abd Rani is the deputy, and Ahmad Sabki Yusof is the vice-president.
This afternoon, the wing will debate Salahuddin’s speech as the outgoing PAS Youth chief, which he delivered at the muktamar’s opening last night. The Youth muktamar will end tonight, and the general assembly and elections for the PAS main body will begin tomorrow until Sunday. 
Eric says
This KPP’s proposed separation along ethnic lines is so BN-like and ludicrous, it actually sounds like sabotage. I, for one, was considering joining to stress on multi-ethnic Malaysia, but if this happens then I might as well join BN!
1 Black Malaysia. Democracy First. Elections Now.
kam says
Money politics, KPI, racial-division … I am confused. this is about Umno?
malaysianfirst says
PAS is also practising the colonial strategy of divide and rule of the races which Umno/BN have so effectively used on Malaysians up till Mar 2008. Tell me PAS, what in heaven’s name will be the benefit of splitting KPP by race other than so that the majority Malay PAS members will be in control and not lose control ala Umno/BN.
If this happens, then let me be the first to say this is the beginning of end of the KPP. The ones who will still remain in the KPP will be the sycophants similar to MCA/MIC/Gerakan in the Umno-controlled BN. Give them sweets once in a while to keep them quiet.
Wake up, PAS. Malaysians are not so gullible anymore.
Hong says
There is no reason to divide the PAS Non-Muslim Supporters Club into Indian and Chinese factions other to ensure that internal divisions exist within it, which is ironic given that it was the party’s national unity bureau proposed it. The move looks suspiciously like it was meant to preempt the possibility of the club gaining too much influence in the internal affairs of PAS because, if one wanted to divide up a club into more manageable units, would it not make more sense to do so according to constituencies and states, as is the existing practice in PAS?