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152 Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid and Che Hamdan Che Mohd Razali

As GE14 approached, Mahathir reconciled with Anwar, although rather
than join Anwar’s multiracial party, he formed a new party, Parti Pribumi
Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM, Malaysian United Indigenous Party). PPBM
accommodated mainly disillusioned UMNO defectors who were either
expelled by Najib Razak or voluntarily left UMNO on account of its allegedly
corrupt ways and practices—although at this stage, it was not clear whether
PPBM really di ered from UMNO. However, PH’s elevating Mahathir as
prime minister-designate as GE14 neared was a risky experiment, Mahathir
himself having been tainted by allegations of an unsavoury role in nancial
scandals, exposed in the past by detractors including none other than Anwar
Ibrahim (Penang Kini 2017). e stage was set, then, for a recon gured intra-
Malay contest in GE14.

PAS, Amanah, and Islamist NGOs: Pre-GE14 Islamist
Political Realignments
ese shifting tides left PAS particularly a ected by an identity crisis. e party
was torn between wanting to project an ethnocentric Malay-Muslim image and
aspiring to showcase a more inclusive Malaysian identity while remaining loyal
to Islamic political ideals. is dilemma had been developing since Reformasi
activists, whose allegiance some veteran PAS ideologues suspected was more to
Anwar Ibrahim than to PAS’s kepimpinan ulama (religious scholars’ leadership),
rst owed into PAS (Hamayotsu 2010). e demise of Nik Aziz Nik Mat,
PAS’s widely respected Murshid al-‘Am (General Guide) and Kelantan chief
minister from 1990 until 2013, removed any lingering doubts as to the party’s
intended trajectory identity-wise. By June 2015, progressive reformists within
PAS found themselves sidelined from party leadership, triggering an exodus
that gave birth to Amanah three months later (see Hew, this volume).
While a handful of Amanah leaders, including party President Mohamad
Sabu and Deputy President Salahuddin Ayub, were veteran PAS activists,
others were post-Reformasi converts to the PAS cause. A signi cant number of
them, such as Dr Dzulke y Ahmad, Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, and Dr Hatta
Ramli, trace their Islamist genealogy to the NGO Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia
(Ikram, Ikram Association of Malaysia), whose precursors were Jamaah
Islah Malaysia (JIM, Society for Islamic Reform) and the covert Islamic
Representative Council (IRC) (Lemière 2009; Maszlee 2018). To this crop
of activists, virtually all of whom profess fealty to the ideals of past reformist
PAS leaders such as Yusof Rawa, Fadzil Noor, and Nik Aziz Nik Mat, and
who propounded the ethnically inclusive ‘PAS for All’ motto during their

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