Embrace your rebels, political parties told
(FMT) – A political analyst has urged political parties to be more tolerant of criticism of their leadership than they currently appear to be.
“Criticism against the party leadership should be embraced and addressed accordingly,” said Faisal S Hazis, an associate professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
He was commenting on PAS’s negative reaction to criticism from Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar. Mahfuz, a PAS veteran, recently expressed his concern over the party leadership’s apparent arrogant reaction to calls for unity among opposition parties
PAS vice-president Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah reacted by accusing Mahfuz of attacking the party. Since then, several quarters in PAS, including Mohd Amar, have told the Pokok Sena MP to resign from the party.
Faisal noted that Mahfuz was criticising the leadership, not the party.
However, he added, PAS was not the only political organisation displaying intolerance to criticism of its leaders.
“This is a problem with political parties in Malaysia in general,” he said. “It’s happened in DAP before and it’s happened in Umno as well.”