Hadi: PAS' future is with Pakatan
After two years of flirting with arch-rival Umno, PAS president has decisively called on the party to be fully committed to Pakatan Rakyat's goal of capturing Putrajaya.
After two years of flirting with arch-rivals Umno, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has finally and decisively called on the party to be fully committed to Pakatan Rakyat's goal of capturing Putrajaya.
In his address officiating the party's 56th annual assembly or muktamar, he cautioned the party to maintain its principle of tahalluf siyasi (political cooperation) and not to forget PAS's Islamist foundation. 
Citing the several by-elections over the past two years, especially the last in Sibu, Sarawak, Hadi (right) said such experiences have shown that PAS's policies could go hand-in-hand with Pakatan, and even break new grounds.
"These become the grounds for bonds between the Pakatan parties and PAS, leading to developments that have changed the political landscape of our country," he told about 2,000 delegates gathered at the party's Islamic Tarbiyah Centre in Pengkalan Chepa, Kelantan.
Recognising that PAS' main obstacle was its inability to make significant inroads into the Malay community, Hadi said the party's priority was to address this matter.
"The Malays are still being lulled to sleep by Umno's narrow and racist lullaby," he explained.
It therefore fell upon PAS to "wake up" the Malays, the majority of whom were fellow Muslims, from the embrace of this "damaged cocoon".
Elaborating , Hadi said the "damaged cocoon" was fragile because it was made up of empty slogans such as "Juara Rakyat (people's champion)" and "people first, performance now", which he said were pure rhetoric and sweet nothings for the ear.
NEM merely a rehash of old policies
Complicating matters was the New Economic Model, Hadi said, as it was merely a rehash of the old policies of privatising or corporatisating government services, leading to monopolies that burdened the people.
The NEM, he maintained, was a policy with sky-high goals, but without the holistic principles of morality, it would cause the nation to continue to be trapped in the liberal-capitalist economic system.
"Building upon the failings of Umno, we should approach rural and urban Malays to impart to them the real understanding of Islam so that they will be with us," he said.
He reminded the delegates that being a true Muslim meant being able to save one's own self and setting a good example for others who shared this beloved nation of ours to follow suit.
This, Abdul Hadi said, was essential in not only leading the Malays to a better existence but was also crucial in helping Pakatan Rakyat to topple the BN-controlled federal government.
Among the Pakatan leaders present at the muktamar were Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, Pakatan coordinator Zaid Ibrahim and PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution.
They were joined by representatives from the government of Maldives, the Palestinian-based Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
