Advertisement

Amanah finds a home amid accusations of seizing PAS’s property

Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) moved into its new office on October 1, even as some quarters in PAS accused the new party of trying to take over the Islamist party's premises, including the PAS headquarters on Jalan Raja Laut in Kuala Lumpur. Amanah's new office is located on three floors of a four-storey building named Wisma Amanah on Jalan Kuching in the capital city. The party has rented the space to house its head office and staff. The party, launched on Malaysia Day on September 16, has close to 10 permanent staffers, headed by secretary-general Anuar Tahir. On October 6, Amanah received formal recognition after the Registrar of Societies (RoS) approved its name, logo and slogan. "We will make Wisma Amanah our operations base and we have managed to do this through our own funds and support from members and supporters," Amanah deputy president Salahudin Ayub said when met at the new office. He rejected allegations that DAP was funding Amanah's expenses, and said everything Amanah had was earned with the "sweat and contributions" of their members and supporters. During the visit by The Malaysian Insider, all central party leaders, including president Mohamad Sabu, were attending a meeting. "We are having a two-day retreat starting today to discuss our party constitution," Salahudin said. Amanah’s move into its new office has eased speculation that the new party was out to take over the PAS headquarters. The speculation was sparked by the fact that it was former PAS progressive leaders who had handled the ownership of the PAS building, worth over RM10 million, before they quit to join Amanah. The progressives in PAS had worked to move the PAS headquarters from its previous centre in Taman Melewar in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur. It was meant to shed PAS's "kampung image" to a "cosmopolitan image" that the progressives wanted, despite objections from the conservative faction in the party. The progressive leaders, who have gone to Amanah, are trustees of PAS property nationwide. One of the trustees of Wisma Amanah is former PAS treasurer Asmuni Awi, now Amanah's treasurer. PAS allegedly accused Amanah recently of systematically taking away buildings belonging to them as well as the Pasti kindergartens set up by the Islamist party in Tenggara, Johor. The allegations went viral. Later, Johor Amanah chairman and Parit Ya'ni assemblyman, Aminolhuda Hassan, explained that since the setting up of Gerakan Harapan Baru - the precursor to Amanah - the party had formed a committee to deal with assets acquired together with PAS. Members in the committee included lawyers, real estate consultants, professionals and religious teachers. The committee decided that assets with land grants under PAS and under the name of PAS trustees will belong to PAS Assets with land grants under the names of their original owners, who have died, will also belong to PAS. Meanwhile, assets with land grants under the names of their original owners who are still alive can be given to either PAS or Amanah as endowments (wakaf), based on the owners' decision. Aminolhuda said the allegations referred to ownership of a property by Amanah in Tenggara, which based on the the committee’s decisiion, coud be given to either PAS or Amanah as wakaf. – October 9, 2015.