Anwar is seen by the Malaysian opposition parties as their best hope yet to mount a serious challenge to Badawi's ruling party's grip on power. (Reuters)

KOTA BHARU, Malaysia, June 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Malaysia's opposition Islamic Party called on the nation's charismatic opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim to join hands and form an opposition alliance to challenge the ruling party's 48-year grip on power, as Malaysian women demanded the party leaders to allow more senior posts for females.

Addressing the opening session of the Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) 51^st annual assembly Friday, June 3, party leader Hadi Awang said his party is ready to accept Anwar into the opposition fold, Reuters reported.

"We accept him as a leader," Hadi said at the PAS annual assembly in the party's stronghold, the northern state of Kelantan.

"He has charisma and credibility that can strengthen us."

Anwar, freed from jail last year, is seen by the Malaysian opposition parties as their best hope yet to mount a serious challenge to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's multiracial coalition, which has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957.

The PAS leader maintained that his party is ready to cooperate with all opposition parties, including Non-Muslims, to alter the political landscape in the country.

"An alternative alliance should be credible and matured and involve all opposition parties.

"It should provide the best alternative for Malaysians. We should pool our strengths to topple UMNO-BN and alter the country's political landscape."

PAS, once a growing opposition force, suffered a humiliating defeat in general elections last year by Abdullah's United Malays National Organization-led coalition.

The defeat was seen as a rejection of its fundamentalist, anti-women policies. PAS' parliamentary strength dipped to five seats from 27.

It also lost power in one of the two states it ruled, leaving it in control of only Kelantan state in the northeast.

PAS leader maintained that his party is ready to cooperate with all opposition parties, including Non-Muslims. (Reuters)

Anwar, who was imprisoned in 1999 on what he called trumped-up charges of corruption and sodomy, has urged PAS to soften its Islamic image to woo non-Muslim voters in the country and beautify its tarnished image in the West.

The party leader, however, said the PAS would not compromise on its struggle to turn Malaysia into a strict Islamic state, according to Reuters.

"PAS is at a critical crossroad. I would like to remind you that our struggle is based on the Qur'an," he told about 3,000 party members.

"Our struggle is to create in this country a society and administration that is based on Islamic values and rules."

PAS in theory wants Malaysia to be a strict Islamic state.

Muslim Malays make up some 60 percent of Malaysia's 25 million population, with Chinese accounting for 25 percent and Indians 7.5 percent.

Senior Posts

Hours before the opening of the PAS assembly, Malaysian women urged party leaders to allow women to hold senior posts in the party, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

"As long as the society perceives PAS as a party that marginalizes women, PAS will never be fully accepted as a party that fights for justice for all," Kalthom Othman, outgoing chief of the PAS women's wing, told AP.

She told a farewell speech Thursday at the PAS annual congress that "the effort to have more women leaders is not against Islam but it is demanded by Islam."

The PAS assembly in the Kelantan capital Kota Bahru will be followed by elections Saturday for the posts of Deputy President, the three Vice Presidents and Central Committee members.

The polls will see for ^the first time a woman contesting a party post.

Siti Mariah Mahmud, a British-trained physician, will vie for one of the three vice-presidency slots, challenging seven male candidates.