[Malaysia] Najib: Don't Divide the Muslims

Najib warns PAS not to divide nation's Muslims
Malaysiakini, Jun 6, 2005

The government today warned the fundamentalist Islamic opposition party PAS to act responsibly and not cause divisions among the nation's Muslims after it vowed to reform itself under new leadership.

"It's too early to tell in terms of what the new PAS leadership will do," Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said after last week's annual congress of PAS which saw veteran party members turfed out.

"I hope they will be responsible and not do something that will divide Muslims or use excessive methods which touch on faith," he told reporters.

PAS has foundered since its humiliating election defeat in 2004 general elections which slashed its presence in parliament from 27 seats to five and lost it the former heartland of Terengganu state.

The new guard ushered in last week has urged the party to halt its alienating rhetoric and make itself more attractive to Malaysia's Chinese and Indian communities so that it can become a viable alternative government.

In a sign of the times, Nasharuddin Mat Isa, the party's moderate and western-educated secretary-general, beat incumbent fundamentalist cleric Hassan Shukri for the post of deputy president, the top position up for grabs in the leadership elections.

Hardline police rejected

Najib, the Umno deputy president said PAS's hardline approach had been comprehensively rejected in multicultural Malaysia.

People continue to have confidence in Umno because of "its moderate and progressive policies, which are based on Muslim principles," he said.

Muslim Malays make up some 60 percent of Malaysia's 25 million population, with Chinese accounting for 25 percent and Indians 7.5 percent.

- AFP