Amanah Youth: PAS' 'cai culture' not creeping into our party

The "cai culture", the practice where a secret list of names is circulated among party members so that they will only vote a specific group of people, is a painful history for Amanah and indirectly contributed to the formation of the PAS splinter party.

This was the method used by the PAS conservative faction to purge their opponents in the 2015 PAS election, prompting the defeated progressive leaders to eventually leave the Islamist party to form Amanah.

So it comes as no surprise that there were raised eyebrows following talks of the "cai" method cropping up at the upcoming inaugural election of Amanah's youth wing.

Amanah deputy president Salahuddin Ayub had even spoken out against, stating that the party cannot accept such a culture from PAS.

However, Amanah Youth vice-chief Shazni Munir Mohd Ithnin (above) in a statement today, said there was a misunderstanding over the matter.

He said groups of candidates campaigning as a team should not be construed as being part of the "cai culture".

"The 'cai' method as experienced by Amanah leaders when they were still with PAS was a covet campaigning method perpetrated by a few people to influence party delegates to only choose people whom they want.

"Their names are put on a 'cai' and it is only circulated on the day of the vote. This is clearly different from what is happening in Amanah Youth.

"The campaign as a team is done openly... with their ideas being presented for all delegates to evaluate," Shazni said in a statement today.

He added that the team campaigning method is transparent and responsible.

"We do not covertly put together groups and all campaigning is done openly on social media.

"More importantly, we do not cross the red line of launching personal attacks," he said.

Shazni said he understood the concerns raised but assured that this was not similar to the "cai culture".