The secretary general of PAS, Takiyuddin Hassan, has now strangely explained that it was acceptable for his central committee colleague Nik Abduh to say that a genuine recording of him speaking was fake, because sometimes ‘telling things the other way around is not a lie’.

Turning the argument around himself, Takiyuddin suggested Nik Abduh had not actually lied but had only failed to tell the truth.  In fact, Nik Abduh did lie, both on Facebook and to the cameras, as he himself has admitted.

Takiyuddin originally dismissed calls for the party to probe the allegations made on the recording, saying a couple of months before the election in March that to do so would be ‘a waste of time’ as it was a ‘trivial matter’. Also effectively ‘failing to tell the truth’, he claimed that the genuine audio record had been “concocted by PAS’s enemies”.

We now hear from PAS leaders that it was a far from trivial matter for them, also that they knew the audio was genuine not fake.

However, according to this and other interviews given to the press the present leadership think their deceit was justified because they felt threatened by the revealing words uttered by Nik Abduh.  The excuse now given for the misinformation was that PAS ‘needed to strategise’ to protect the party.  

Isn’t that always the reason why people always lie i.e. to further their own advantage?

Surely, the moral defenders of the truth and righteousness ought not to lie?

Defamatory or not Defamatory?

As a separate back up justification, Takiyuddin has also claimed that people need to listen to the whole recording to put Nik Abduh’s words into context, as if what Nik Abduh has admitted was defamatory is no longer defamatory if heard along with the rest of what he said.

In fact, the whole recording is available and has been widely listened to and the wider context does nothing to change the meaning of the admissions that UMNO paid PAS. Rather it raises a great number of further questions about other matters that PAS now ought to provide answers to, since they now admit what Abduh said was genuine and the party tried to cover it up.

Questions PAS Should Answer

1) The role of Maulana Saari?

The 20 minute lecture, which Nik Abduh is recorded as having delivered to some 4o PAS members concerned about cash payments from UMNO, begins in a rambling fashion with Nik Abduh mocking his questioner Zaharudin for being a son in law of president Hadi Awang and therefore thinking he should know everything.

He then brings up a individual whom he presents as a real key payer in PAS, namely the person he describes as Maulana Saari:

I am telling you that the most important person for Tok Guru Nik Aziz and Tok Guru Haji Hadi  is Maulana Saari…. If Tok Guru Haji Hadi wants to cry, (he would do so) in front of Maulana Saari. If Tok Guru Nik Aziz wants to cry, (it would be) in front of the Maulana. If he wants to show his anger, he would do it in front of Maulana. Hah! This is the story about the Maulana.
This Maulana Saari has connections with everyone! Najib, the royals… he has access to the royals. He can do anything!

“Maulana Saari” is believed to refer to a person with a Pakistani Islamic educational background called Shaari Mustapha. The Maulana is active in Kelantan’s PAS and is believed to act as Nik Abduh’s advisor and supporter and as an influential middleman. Nik Abduh claims his father was a murderer, but he describes the son as a ‘genius’.

Given the comments, PAS should elaborate on the nature and importance of Shaari’s connections with Najib and indeed the royals and on what things he was achieving for the leaders of PAS. Was ‘The Maulana’ a conduit or go between for Najib as he reached out to improve relations with this key political party after the narrow election result of 2013 as this recording seems to imply?

2) The Role of Suwardi?

Another character Nik Abduh revers in his talk is a person named Suwardi, whom he  describes as a ‘good friend’ of the Maulana, but says that he was not trusted by PAS leaders, except by the late spiritual leader Harun Din (known to have several strong contacts within UMNO):

.. we had to deal with the issue of mutual distrust. Tok Guru Harun Din trusted Suwardi completely. (On the contrary) Tok Guru Haji Hadi did not trust Suwardi at all. So, how do we settle this? On his deathbed, when he was about to fly (depart) the last person whom Tok Guru Harun Din hugged was Suwardi.
Because he knew Suwardi was a victim of slander (so bad such that) Tok Guru Hadi did not trust him. I knew this because people told me that Ustaz Fadzil (former PAS leader) was the one who said “Suhardi is evil. Suhardi is evil.”

PAS should answer if this is a reference to the struck off lawyer Suwardi Yaacob, who ran for PAS in Perlis in 2009 and who is regarded as an ally of Nasharudin Mat Isa and a segment of PAS who were long identified as being in favour of developing ties with UMNO against the wishes of the former spiritual leader, Nik Abduh’s father Nik Aziz and others who previous to 2015 dominated opinion in the party?

Nik Abduh goes on to credit Suwardi as having played a vital role in getting Najib to play along with PAS’s Hudud law proposals:

the reason by Najib can accept the amendment to RUU. The answer is because of the unknown roles played by certain people, for example  Suwardi! Without Suwardi, the project would not have come to fruition.
He was the one who was close to Jamil Khir*. He was the one who had audience with the rulers to connect (us) with people in UMNO. All these UMNO people would listen to him, and any information, he would bring to us.
However, since Tok Guru (Hadi Awang) [still does not trust Suwardi], it was not time yet. We are in the process to convince Tok Guru Haji Hadi of Suwardi’s real character. However, it is not necessary for now because there is no urgency. Let it proceed. (Let) Tok Guru (Hadi Awang) be with his role. (Let) Suwardi be with his role.

[*Tan Sri Jamil Khir Johari, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic Affairs. RUU355 was under his portfolio]

Nik Abduh or PAS should surely now answer whether what he is saying in this passage is that there is a faction in PAS that is working with UMNO through a figure allied to certain membrs of the party whom leaders such as Hadi Awang do or did not trust, but that Nik Abduh thinks he can bring Hadi round?

3) Secret project to eject anti-UMNO leaders from PAS?

Nik Abduh goes on in his talk to confirm the existence of a group within PAS called the RTI, which was dedicated to getting rid of ‘Jebons’, the name given to figures in the party who objected to the plan to link up with UMNO. He also says that whilst it has been agreed now to close down the controversial group, the party has agreed to allow another more secretive related group Tanjung Mas to continue – Tanjung Mas is a campaign focused on supporting UMNO and attacking Husam Musa, who used to be the protege of Nik Aziz.

Furthermore, RTI is being dissolved because I do not want RTI – something which has been sanctioned by this group – to cause (more) damage due to issues relating to Dr Sam; issues relating to Dato’ Tuan (Ibrahim Tuan Mat, deputy president of PAS). These (issues) have spread far and have been used by party machineries. Can we retain RTI? Yes! But not within the official party circle…

On RTI, because we agreed, MT agreed, therefore, we included everyone. This is because RTI was playing a huge role. Among the many party machineries, among the many ‘armies’ (that we have), we respect that RTI was doing the most work. Therefore, we wanted to retain RTI because there are intelligence (strategic) work (for it to do). But, as for Tanjung Mas, even today… (it still remains a secret).

(On the afore-mentioned) I had a quarrel with my father. For quite some time we were not on speaking terms. My father was so livid, he cursed me, called me a disloyal son… because of this issue (caused by) Husam.

I just had to be patient. Because works for… what is it called… Tanjung Mas (must continue uninterrupted). But in terms of our fight against Husam, it is something that we must face perform. I was called treacherous son by my father, but I was patient.

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In the end, my father began to learn more from day to day. He eventually knew that I, all of us, were doing the right thing.

When we were fighting against the Jebon group, we had this task from Tok Guru Haji Hadi. The person who harboured the biggest desire to unseat Jebon was not us. This person who had the biggest desire to unseat Jebon was the person who only had one voice. If he speaks (on something), it is decided. This person is Tok Guru Haji Hadi.

He is the most senior guy. The most influential guy. If he does not give his blessings (on any issue) to the MT (supreme council), we cannot do anything. And the person who had the biggest role to unseat Jebon was Tok Guru Nik Aziz. I was taking care of him, making sure that there was no friction. between Tok Guru Nik Aziz and Tok Guru Haji Hadi.

The question for PAS, Hadi and Nik Abduh is does this passage, in the wider context of the speech, not acknowledge that Nik Abduh had been recruited by a pro UMNO contingent in PAS linked to the untrusted Suwardi and others to gain his own father’s cooperation in the ejection of party leaders not favourable to joining with UMNO and that his father called him treacherous and rejected him for doing so?

4) Dispute with Deputy PAS leader?

Nik Abduh refers in his speech to a dispute with Tun Ibrahim over these matters, but says it is resolved. Is this why Tun Ibrahim today told the press that he no longer thinks accepting money from UMNO is “not a big issue” and “merely academic” and said people must now focus on unspecified allegations of ‘foreign funding’ for DAP?

5) CIA links?

Nik Abduh also boasts at some length in his talk about having a contact in the CIA with whom he speaks.  Is PAS agaist alleged foreign funding for DAP but content that one of their leading figues boasts of regular contact with the CIA?

6) UMNO cash – what were the 11 projects?

Finally, and most pertinant of all, surely it is time for PAS to come clean about the donations of money Nik Abduh openly admitted came from UMNO in this recording?

How was RM2 million passed to the party to fight DAP in the 2016 Sarawak election, as detailed by Nik Abduh and how was it spent?  After all, Takiyudin has now claimed he has provided PAS accounts to the MACC – do these accounts show the receipts and payments linked to this UMNO donation?

Nik Abduh also tells his listeners that there were altogether 10 or 11 other projects of PAS that were successful owing to the receipt of UMNO cash. Ought not the party to list these projects and specify exactly how the UMNO donations were received and how they were spent?

He also claims he personally received money from UMNO and that Hadi and his father recieved money, indeed everyone received money:

Tok Guru Nik Aziz took UMNO’s money, Tok Guru Haji Hadi took UMNO’s money, I took UMNO’s money, everyone took UMNO’s money.

Is it not time for PAS to detail exactly what money Nik Abduh and his colleagues received and exactly how it was spent?

This is the context of the 20 minute speech in which Nik Abduh confessed to PAS taking UMNO cash. Anyone listening to it would agree that far from explaining away the confession and the attempt to then pretend the recording was a fake, the full speech just raises a whole lot more questions that PAS ought now to answer.

Sarawak Report has written to PAS posing the following questions and will publish any comment or reponse they care to make:

Sarawak Report believes a numer of questions have been raised by recent PAS statements condoning a failure to tell the truth and also the general secretary’s request that people consider the context of the whole audio recording by Nik Abduh.

We plan to publish that these questions include:

– Why is it acceptable for PAS, which claims moral leadership, to lie to further its own advantage when it rightfully condemns lying by others?

– What was the role of Maulana Saari in PAS?

– What was the role of Suwardi?

– Was there a plan to eject anti-UMNO leaders from PAS?

– What CIA links do PAS leaders maintain?

– What were the 11 PAS projects to receive money from UMNO?

– How was this money received?

– How was the RM2million paid to PAS for the 2016 Sarawak election received and how was it spent?

– Does PAS accept that the secret transfer of money from one political party to another for purposes of gratification and political advancement constitutes an illegal act according to Malaysian legislation?