PAS leader Datuk Dr Hasan Ali was a brilliant motivational speaker before he went into politics, but he may be skating on thin ice with his ultra-political style.
DATUK Dr Hasan Ali is probably the most famous politician in Selangor now.
Among those who drink, he is the man on a crusade to control the sale of alcoholic beverages in the state.
The civil servants probably see him as a wannabe-champion of their cause in the state administration.
For those who follow political developments, he is the man who is single-handedly rocking the state government with his attacks against fellow Pakatan Rakyat politicians.
Many of his Pakatan colleagues are up in arms against him and several have referred to him as “the only problem” and “a runaway train.”
Dr Hasan has been a top newsmaker over the Hari Raya period and that is not necessarily a good place to be.
The PAS leader may have gone too far with his latest attacks against the conduct of the state government’s Select Committee for Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat).
A number of Pakatan leaders now want him to be expelled from the coalition and even his own party members want the party to act against him.
Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim is believed to have written a formal letter of complaint to the PAS leadership.
“I don’t understand why he has to do this again and again to divide Pakatan Rakyat. Either he changes or the party has to act. This cannot go on,” said a PAS central committee member.
Sources in PAS said he will be facing the party central committee on Sept 29, where he may be taken to task.
This will be the second time the party has asked him to explain himself.
On Sept 9, just days after he was summoned to the Selangor palace, he was pulled up before the party’s political bureau headed by president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang.
After hearing his account and getting an assurance that he would not cross over to Umno, they cautioned him about carrying out his anti-alcohol crusade.
The PAS leaders were worried that Dr Hasan’s plan to involve mosque officials to implement the policy could result in misuse of authority and embarrass the party.
They also advised him not to take his issues to the media but to go through party channels.
Even the high-level Pakatan presidential council has advised him to observe the code of cooperation among the parties.
But Dr Hasan seems to be on a trajectory of his own, going by his latest outburst on the Selcat hearings.
“His actions have done great damage to the image of PAS. He’s not committed to the agreed ob-jective of strengthening Pakatan and it makes PAS look like an unreliable partner. As an Islamist party we should be true to our words.
“In Selangor, we are seen as a suspect partner, the weak link, and this is a result of Dr Hasan Ali’s leadership. The party leadership has to strengthen our image as a dependable, trustworthy and sincere partner in politics,” said Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad.
Many have wondered how Dr Hasan became the ultra-voice of PAS.
Dr Hasan, a trained town planner who obtained his PhD from the United States, was a government servant before making a name for himself as a brilliant motivational speaker.
He was part of the reformasi wave of Malay professionals who joined PAS in 1998.
Six months later, he was voted into the party central committee.
From there, he moved on to contest and win the vice-president’s post for two terms.
His career took a dip after 2005 as he was eclipsed by other more outstanding faces in the party.
The last party elections saw him make a comeback of sorts when he took the number four spot in the 18-seat central committee.
He was then rewarded with the Selangor PAS chief’s post.
This, together with his state exco portfolio on Islamic Affairs, Malay Customs, Infrastructure and Ameni-ties, has made him a high-profile figure in Selangor.
For many years, Dr Hasan had had a reputation as a moderate and some in the party even complained of his “Umno style” and said he was not PAS enough.
But all this changed after March 8 when PAS leaders spurned an attempt by Umno’s Datuk Seri Mohd Khir Toyo to form an Umno-PAS state government, with Dr Hasan as the Mentri Besar.
Pakatan politicians claim Dr Hasan still aspires to be Mentri Besar and that his thwarted ambition has made him dissatisfied and critical of the current administration.
However, his bold moves to implement Islamic law in Selangor has also won him admirers among conservative Malays.
He has received a string of invitations from the PAS grassroots to speak about his anti-alcohol drive.
At the same time, he has damaged the coalition in ways that even Umno people have been unable to and his colleagues say he is a better opposition than the real opposition.
In fact, he has done so much damage that the coalition has given up on damage control.
His own party is at quite a loss about what to do with him. He has clearly crossed the line in terms of party discipline but expelling him is not going to stop him from speaking out.
He may be an even bigger and looser cannon out there.
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