MAY 29 — If there is anything that is news, it must be conflict. And no greater news for Utusan Malaysia than to report and build up the conflict within PAS which is holding its biennial party elections next weekend.

The Umno daily’s weekend edition focussed on the tight race for the No 2 and vice-presidential slots, raising the spectre that there are outside forces wanting to ensure a leadership that is progressive and partial to the likes of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the DAP.

It didn’t mince its words with one of its editorial writers saying the Islamist party must keep to its roots as a group of scholars and not be progressive in its outlook. This is the same complaint that Utusan makes when castigating PAS leaders for being backward in an age of science and technology.

For Utusan, the three-cornered fight for the PAS deputy presidency and six eyeing the three vice-presidential slots is a way to dictate how the Islamist party should behave after it rejected overtures to link up with Umno since Election 2008 when the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) suffered a bloody nose.

While party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has won unopposed, Utusan is betting on party conservatives such as incumbent deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa and PAS Youth leader Nasarudin Hassan Al-Tantawi to stem the tide against the progressives.

Well and good. Yet Utusan must know that this is democracy at play here. Unlike Umno where party lists are distributed to ensure unity and backing for the leadership until they decide to call it a day, PAS is party where democracy within its Islamic outlook is practised. Tough contests are part and parcel of that democracy.

Otherwise, would Abdul Hadi have made it in 1982 when the conservatives took over from the nationalists, such as Datuk Asri Muda, whose leadership was questioned by Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat after the 1978 loss of Kelantan to Umno?

With a week to go to the hustings, Utusan is working on the party psyche to elect those perturbed with the close and deepening ties within Pakatan Rakyat (PR). It happened in 2009 but this time, the so-called progressives appear to have the upper hand and a better strategy, much to the dismay of Umno and Utusan.

And that is why Utusan is playing up the issue of outsiders meddling in PAS polls or the fact that the party should stay true to its founding principles.

Fact is, that’s something for PAS delegates to decide for themselves and then offer their vision to Malaysians at large. The delegates are not stupid to fall for the sweet words of its allies or Umno or Utusan.

They have nominated as many leaders as possible to fight for posts with an eye to the future. Like us, they want to know what are their options. A contest of different philosophies, visions and leaders is part of the process unlike the ossified electoral system in Umno.

Let the best men and women in PAS win and then tempt us with their vision. Let’s not allow anyone to tell PAS what it should or should not do. Especially it’s political foes.