AMANAH mulls over having non-Malay vice presidents

While there are no written rule in AMANAH’s constitution for the representation of non-Malay representation in the top leadership, the party’s newly minted deputy president, Senator Datuk Seri Mujahid Yusof mulls over this notion.

“On this issue of vice president, from the non Muslims, it is not written in the constitution. It is our aspiration in a short span of time to see a qualified non-Muslim, a non-Malay qualified to be one,” said Mujahid.

He said this during an exclusive interview with Harapan Daily that was held at the party headquarters last week.

“We have three vice president elected by the committee after the convention. We have another two appointed. We can still use that in the near future.

One non-Malay and one from East Malaysia

He pointed out that the party had pondered over having one non-Malay from Peninsular Malaysia and another from East Malaysia.

“There were discussion whether to have one non Malay to reflect the multiracial character of Amanah and the other one for Sabah and Sarawak.

“We also thought of East Malaysia’s need, maybe have one from Sabah or Sarawak.

“These two things come together. Insya Allah we will have that,” he said.

AMANAH was established in 2015 as a Muslim based multiracial party.

Eight years down the road, the multiracialism is not reflected in the party’s top leadership hierarchy.

The issue is of importance since there were shifts in voting pattern among the non Malay community, especially the Indian community.

Upto 20% vote share of the Indians in the state polls simultaneously in six states saw a shift from Pakatan Harapan to Perikatan Nasional. In Penang, there are claims that upto 40 percent of the Indian voters did not turn up on polls day.

This, in part, was due to the fall out of former deputy chief minister II, Dr P Ramasamy who was not fielded by the DAP.

He also said that while the focus of the party is the Malay Muslim vote bloc, it does not mean that AMANAH is “abandoning non-Malay votes”.

“Based on our clear purpose that rahmatan lil alamin is for all, not just Muslims, I do not see any problems for AMANAH to get close or have better messaging for non-Muslims as it is already in our system.

“I can rest assure you the non-Malays are always part of our important inclusiveness that we aspire,” he said.