The controversial concerts featuring Akademi Fantasia winner Asmawi Ani - better known as Mawi - organised by the PAS-led Kelantan government will only serve to enhance the party's image, said its vice-president Dr Hassan Ali.

Supporting the move, Hassan said the move will complement the party's mission of dakwah (propagation) and its politics.

"I don't see what we have to lose in bringing Mawi to Kelantan be it from the missionary or political point of view," he told reporters at a media gathering organised by PAS Selangor in Subang Jaya yesterday.

"Mawi is now an icon for the youths. If you look at PAS' postmortem report on the 2004 general election, one of the reasons PAS lost was because voters between the age of 21 and 30, the youths, did not support us. So (the concerts) may be a boon for us in showing that we understand them."

He said Mawi's strong religious background and personality could also help PAS introduce an alternative type of entertainment which does not run foul of Islamic teachings.

"Popular artistes with a strong Islamic background are indeed rare. It's very powerful that a 24-year-old man who performs in a concert has thousands of fans shouting his tag line 'World! World!'

"And then we hear him shouting back to his fans to remind them of the other world (the Hereafter). Surely that's not an easy task."

All systems go

Hassan expressed his confidence that the two concerts which Mawi will perform in Kelantan on Sept 30 and Oct 1 will run smoothly.

"I was told that the Sept 30 concert will begin with congregational prayers with Mawi reciting the azan (call for prayers). In this way, I believe that PAS can initiate entertainment for youths different from the hedonistic types offered to them all these years."

The PAS concerts seem set to go on despite the open protest by the party's ulama chief Harun Taib who said that Mawi should not be allowed to perform as he is a product of a television reality show that 'deviates from Islamic values'.

"The shows will not be cancelled regardless of protests of any kind and I extend my invitation to all the people of Kelantan to be at the concerts," the New Straits Times quoted Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat as saying today.

Concert programme approved

Meanwhile, PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa said no objections had been received with regards to the programme of the Mawi concerts as circulated to party leaders during a meeting on Sept 11.

"The detailed programme had been circulated during the last party central working committee meeting on Sept 11 without any objection received," he said in a statement today.

"We wish to reiterate that PAS advocates healthy and positive entertainment as it is allowed in Islam," he added.

He also noted that the concerts' programme was compliant with Kelantan's Entertainment and Entertainment Premises Enactment, 1998.