Will the Real PAS Please Stand Up!
Art Harun
For a political party which calls itself Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, PAS is surely one hell of a chameleonic creature. To say that PAS is pragmatist would be an abuse of that term.
In fact, to say that it is chameleon in nature would tantamount to introducing a new specie to that family of lizard. PAS' real nature is more like the Lernaean Hydra, the fearsome water serpent with nine heads.
This is a party which is so full of itself. It is filled with people who believe that Islam needs their help and assistance all the time. With people who believe that God is so meek and weak that He needs defending by them.
But the strange thing is this. When situation suits them, these very same people would embrace liberalism and would dance on the same dance floor with the likes of DAP and Anwar Ibrahim's PKR. Not only that, it would have no qualm in entering into a pact – a binding promise the breach of which, in Islam, is a sinful act – with PKR and DAP in order to form a political alliance for the general election. And they would sing liberalism all the way to various state legislative assemblies and even the Parliament.
Well, it is hard for a tiger to lose its stripes. Deep inside and within, PAS is still PAS. History would show that they have jumped in and out of the UMNO bandwagon for the sake of nothing more than political aspirations and desires. It is almost a vehicle for political expediency.
UMNO knows this. Hence the unity government gambit. What if UMNO says to PAS, come and join us and you would get this and that? And a part of this and that is the widening of the Islamist fundamentalism net in Malaysia? Would PAS refuse? Or would PAS, as is often in the past, fall again to UMNO's seduction? Would the defenders of Islam in PAS be willing to ditch its own partners – to and with whom PAS is bound through a promise and a pact – and forsake its liberalism song and dance? Would the temptation prove too strong for these beacon of piety and goodness?
PAS' actions in current days seem to suggest that these defenders of Islam are ready to change tune. In fact, PAS' true colours are showing.
On August the 10th, Zaid Ibrahim announced a start-up common agenda and platform for the three political parties which make up the Pakatan Rakyat. PAS of course is one of them. He started by saying:
"Pakatan Rakyat must firstly unite all Malaysians. We must revive the dreams of Tunku Abdul Rahman and other independence leaders."
Then he went on to say that the PR will establish non-discrimination laws. He said:
"Pakatan must reject the practice of discrimination."
