The moon rises
(The Nut Graph) IN the midst of the 2009 Perak constitutional coup, embattled Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin won many Malaysians over with his moral courage, steadfastness and calm. He became the face of Malaysians who opposed an absolute monarchy.
Nizar was even hailed as a possible successor of Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim by some non-Muslim Malaysians. To my knowledge, he was perhaps the first ever PAS leader who gained such acceptance as premier material by Malaysians across ethnic and religious lines.
Does this acceptance of Nizar indicate that PAS has really changed? Is PAS genuine in reaching out to non-Muslims? Will the party revert to its old mould if it gets into federal power?
National appeal
There is a caveat here: Those who cheer for the likes of Nizar, Shah Alam Member of Parliament (MP) Khalid Samad and Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat appear to be mostly from West Malaysia. We have rarely heard of Sarawakians and Sabahans who support PAS.
To many easygoing East Malaysians, any religious party is simply too heavy for them. And PAS cannot be a national party until it can be accepted by Malaysians from both sides of the South China Sea.
Perhaps for this reason, the Sarawak United People’s Party thought it could dissuade Sibu voters from choosing the DAP by making them believe that PAS, the DAP’s ally, would threaten the beloved non-halal local dish, kampua mee.
Instead, the DAP brought Nizar to Sibu to help in the campaign. In one ceramah to a largely Christian audience, the audience laughed supportively when he said, “The largest sleeping Buddha in Southeast Asia lies in Kelantan where PAS has ruled since 1990. Have we awakened him or asked him to stand up?”
PAS is, indeed, more inclusive towards religious minorities now than many have imagined. However, one would not have been able to imagine the same PAS coming out so fearlessly to defend non-Muslim use of the word “Allah“, say, five years ago.
But if PAS has managed to establish its Christian-friendly credibility in the “Allah” row, its Hindu-friendly reputation was sealed even earlier in 2007. When the Hindraf movement took conversion and body-snatching issues head on, painting Hindus as victims of religious persecution, PAS initially labelled them “extreme”. But soon enough, PAS embraced Hindraf.
