PAS — opposition power house or federal ruling party?
By Sheridan Mahavera, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — There are two competing but telling narratives of PAS, the Islamist and second largest party in Malaysia post-2008.
In Kedah, there are grassroots members and Muslims who voted for them who complain that there are more karaoke joints and pubs that have sprouted up in the past three years where the Islamist party has been in power.
Also in Kedah and every other state in the peninsula, there are significant numbers of non-Muslim supporters who compare PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat to Mahatma Gandhi, the world symbol of all non-violent revolutions.
Both of these groups of people helped give the party its historic 23 parliamentary seats and its two state governments. The party also scored a bonus by getting the post of mentri besar in three of the five states Pakatan Rakyat won.
Yet these sentiments also pose a dilemma. If PAS decides to please its traditional supporters and go back to the PAS of old, with its focus on anti-vice laws, moral policing and its version of an “Islamic state” it alienates its new non-Muslim and moderate Muslim support base.
But if it holds off on realising hudud law (which calls for cutting off the hands of thieves and stoning adulterers), some its most hardcore supporters feel they’ve been betrayed.
And then there is the possibility of co-operating with arch-nemesis Umno. Though it has been fervently refuted by its leadership, the matter still crops up and haunts the imagination of many members.
So when the party meets from today for its 57th party muktamar (assembly), it will have to decide which narrative or combination between the two will decide the party’s direction moving into the 13th general election.
Its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) partners the DAP and PKR are keenly watching this muktamar. Not just because of the elections taking place but because the party’s leadership will have to chart PAS’s direction going into the 13th general election which they expect to be later this year.
What comes out of the muktamar will determine if PAS can live up to its billing as the “Umno of PR” who will gain the necessary Muslim support to propel PR into federal power.
Movement or ruling party?
PAS members, says one Kedah party activist, can be roughly divided into two types. And no, it’s not “Erdogan”/professionals versus ulama/conservatives.
One type believes that PAS is, first and foremost, an Islamic movement. Its main purpose is to spread the religion and pressure the government to adopt so-called “Islamic laws” such as hudud and qisas and to outlaw unIslamic practices such as gambling.
“The idea is that PAS should just preach Islam to the public, regardless as to whether people listen or not,” says Mohd Monier Mat Din, a member from Padang Serai.
