Abdul Hadi Awang

Biography

Abdul Hadi bin Awang (born 20 October 1947 in Rusila, Marang, Terengganu) is the president of the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and the Member of Parliament for Marang, a seat he held from 1990 to 2004 and has held again since 2008. He is the longest-serving president in the party's history. Hadi is a religious teacher by training. After local schooling he studied at the Islamic University of Madinah between 1969 and 1973 and later at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. On returning to Malaysia he joined the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (ABIM) in 1977, becoming its Terengganu state chief, and joined PAS the following year. His rise through the party was rapid: he was a vice-president by 1980, deputy president from 1989 under Fadzil Noor, and succeeded to the presidency after Fadzil's death in 2002, being confirmed at the party's 2005 assembly. He served as Menteri Besar of Terengganu from 1999 to 2004, when PAS captured the state, and was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2004. He has also been a vice-president of the International Union of Muslim Scholars. Under Hadi's leadership PAS left the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition in 2015, aligned itself with Perikatan Nasional, and grew into the single largest party in the Dewan Rakyat after the 2022 general election — a result widely described as a "green wave" in Malay-majority constituencies. He is among the country's most divisive figures. Since the 1980s he has drawn police investigation and sustained criticism over remarks about non-Muslim minorities and about Muslims who do not share his conservative religious positions. He was hospitalised for heart-related treatment in July 2023.

Constituencies (1)

Electoral track record

310 mentions across 4 months

News mentions