One ummah, two PASes
By Wong Chin Huat
[email protected]
NOTHING could be more wrong than to think there is a pro-Umno faction in PAS.
Rather, we need to notice nuances in the debate on a possible unity government with Umno and the notorious resolution for the National Fatwa Council to investigate and possibly ban Sisters in Islam (SIS). These issues are symptomatic of two factions competing for the soul of a new PAS, by offering different strategies to deal with Umno and other "enemies".
And specifically regarding the unity government proposal, perhaps one way to foreshadow the direction of such a government is to look at the fates that befell PAS's two splinter parties, Berjasa and Hamim. These parties could not survive without first collaborating with Umno, but such collaboration soon led to their demise.
Berjasa, formed by former Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Mohamad Nasir in 1978, and Hamim, formed by former party president Tan Sri Mohamad Asri Muda, both failed miserably. The question is, why?
To put it very crudely, the Malay Malaysians as a community — at least in the Malay heartlands like Kelantan and Terengganu — are simply too large to be represented by one party.
Notwithstanding the calls by Umno or PAS to unite for the sake of race or religion, Malay Malaysians simply need at least two parties to allow for competition in political, economic and social resources and prizes.
Unity governments — whether between Umno and PAS, Umno and Berjasa, or Umno and Hamim — are basically about doing away with open competition, not unlike mergers of big corporations that deny consumers real choices.
But would Malay Malaysian voters allow competition and choices, which make the masses the ultimate political deciders, to evaporate? Probably not, and judging by history, they would penalise PAS.
For example, the then Umno-led Alliance's interpretation of the 13 May 1969 riots scripted a "crisis" of Malay-Muslim survival. This then necessitated a unity government encompassing major Malay-Muslim parties. And this was when PAS joined the post-1969 Barisan Nasional (BN) unity government.
Even then, many anti-establishment Malay Malaysian voters abandoned PAS for Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) — the only Malay-based opposition party — in the 1974 elections.
Hypothetically, then, if Umno and PAS continued getting along in 1978, PRM might have further eroded PAS's support base. By extension, Umno and PAS might have needed to virtually become one like Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU). But we all know the relationship between Umno and PAS soured, and PAS eventually left the BN.
If a unity government between Umno and PAS does materialise now, it would likely have only three consequences: the decline of Umno, the decline of PAS, or the merger of the two into one party. Of these three, the decline of PAS is the most likely outcome.
