KUALA LUMPUR – PAS has more technocrats than people realise and is no longer a “village party”, said Terengganu Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar.
The party vice-president, who was previously an aerospace engineer and lecturer, described himself as one of the technocrats who worked quietly behind the scenes to help the Islamist party.
“The party actually has a lot of technocrats from various fields and backgrounds, but people may not have known it because most of them have been working behind the scenes to come up with strategies for PAS to move forward, including myself before I was fielded as a candidate for state election in 2018,” the Ru Rendang assemblyman said on Facebook.
“PAS has the potential to become a modern Islamic party and comparing PAS with the Taliban is a mistake,” said Samsuri, who has been menteri besar since 2018, and Kemaman MP after winning the seat’s by-election last September.
Contrary to what its detractors think, PAS understands Malaysia’s societal structure and its multi-ethnic, multi-religious population, he added.
“PAS has become a party that is more relevant and accepted by society in this country,” he said, adding that those who think the party is extremist and prejudiced are wrong.
Samsuri’s win in the Kemaman parliamentary by-election last year saw PAS and its supporters touting him as prime minister material and the Islamist party’s best shot at presenting a more moderate face for national power.
In the early years of his political career, Samsuri served as political secretary to PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang.
PAS, as part of the opposition under Perikatan Nasional (PN), and apart from its alliance with Barisan Nasional (BN) in the 1970s, only held federal power briefly, when PN under Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin formed the government, from March 2020 to August 2021. – January 13, 2024