PETALING JAYA: The top PAS leadership will converge in Alor Setar tonight for an urgent meeting aimed at defusing the party crisis in Kedah, which is threatening the survival of the Pakatan Rakyat state government.
The Kedah meeting is seen as a last-ditch effort by the top leaders to save the PAS-led administration, which has been badly shaken by the ongoing feud between Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak and former state exco member Datuk Phahrolrazi Mohd Zawawi.
In the latest twist, Phahrolrazi, the Kuala Kedah PAS division chief, was slapped with a gag order and told not to issue any more statements for now.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali confirmed that Azizan and Phahrolrazi have agreed to attend the meeting to give their version of things.
Mustafa said members of the Kedah liaison committee as well as PAS assemblymen and MPs from the state have been asked to attend the meeting, which will be chaired by party president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang.
It is understood that the meeting was called after a stormy central committee session in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday that ended at 1am without finding a way out of the crisis.
The Kedah crisis was the main topic and party sources said there was heated argument between proponents of both sides. Supporters of Phahrolrazi made a strong case on his behalf and related how Azizan had failed in his duties as Mentri Besar.
PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub said the central leadership decided to take a leading role in the conflict because it was no longer just a Kedah issue.
“Our mission is to save the Kedah government,” said Salahuddin, who had led a three-man mediation team to Kedah on Tuesday to speak to the parties concerned.
A PAS official said the situation in Kedah was now like “a kapal pecah” (shipwreck) that the party leaders were trying to salvage.
Phahrolrazi and another former exco member, Dr Ismail Salleh, escalated the feud when they refused to be reappointed to the state exco. This was despite instructions from the central committee urging them to rejoin the state exco for the sake of the party.
Azizan offered an olive branch to the pair, saying he was prepared to accept them but Phahrolrazi fuelled the conflict by setting conditions for his return.
Then, a few days ago, Phahrolrazi issued an ultimatum to Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah, who is his deputy in the division, to choose between Azizan or the division. He said Amiruddin would be isolated in the division unless he quit the state exco. Amiruddin's stand is that he is merely following orders from the central committee.
The current crisis began as what PAS officials described as a perang peribadi (personality clash) between Azizan and Phahrolrazi but developed into a power struggle after the latter tried to take over when the Mentri Besar suffered a heart attack in September last year. The attempt failed and their relationship went downhill from there.
It is also learnt that the Kedah Dewan Ulama, which sided with Phahrolrazi, had sought a meeting with Hadi last week, asking him to replace Azizan as Mentri Besar. They were upset when Hadi told them that he could not do that because the general election was too near.
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