PAS STEPS ON FRIENDS TOES WITH THE NEW WING

Zainal Ahmad
June 15, 2010

KOTA BARU: Things do not look rosy for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in the next general election as PAS, one of the three parties in the loose alliance has officially opens its doors to non-Muslims. Establishing another wing in the party called Supporters Wing, the party now gives Chinese and Indians who are disappointed with their respective parties or who need a political platform a chance to continue their political struggles.

Although the members of the wing know well that they have no right to vote nor have a say in PAS policies, the platform is seen as a way out for them to show their displeasure to their former parties.

PAS, in setting up the wing, aims to widen its support base, extending it to the non-Muslims, a move which the party made in the eighties but fizzled out due to lack of support and the party image as an Islamic fundamentalist.

However, over the years the party leaders have managed to change the party’s image of ulamaks with skull caps and green robes to moderate Islam with young intellectuals wearing neckties and eating in hotel coffee-houses with eloquent English. And 2008 general election gave the party a boost when even the non-Muslims carried the party’s flags on campaign trails.

Given the change in the political landscape and perception, and with the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties losing influence and credibility, PAS quickly moves in with the new wing.

Aimed at giving a platform for dissidents of BN who are lost in oblivion, the party is now also seen as attempting to be the dominant party in PR. It reaches out to ‘dissatisfied’ members of the partner-parties, especially so when the seemingly dominant party Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) is embroiled in a ‘credibility crisis’ from within.

The Indians in PKR have openly voiced their dissatisfaction towards the party leadership and the way it goes, they are now looking for alternative as a platform to continue their so-called political struggle. The Chinese in PKR, although not that many, are also having similar thoughts and with PAS making available a platform, they may just jump over without being accused of ‘selling out to BN.’

After all, members of the wing as specifically outlined by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, could contest the general election under PAS ticket, which will not only benefit the individual but more to PAS.

PAS move does not only affect unity and reducing the support base of PKR, some said DAP is also affected as ‘quite a number of party members are angry at father-son hold on the party’ (referring to Lim Kit Siang-Lim Guan Eng team).

DAP is worried PAS open policies would erode its support among the moderate Chinese, while PKR worries its influence among Chinese would decline fast and Indians reduced drastically. And for PAS, what the party is looking for right now is widening its support base and stepping on friends’ toes in doing so is just a coincidence, not on purpose.

Like PAS Youth central committee member Nik Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz said the move was inevitable and competing for non-Muslims vote in the next general election was perfectly normal. “By allowing a non-Muslim to contest under PAS banner, it will go a long way to show Islam is tolerant,” he said.

Abdul Hadi, in leading the move, had also ‘silence’ the party’s objective of setting up an Islamic state which the party has been pursuing since its formation in 1951. After all, as some say politics is a game of the impossible and PAS is proving the saying right.