PAS and DAP: Difference and the limits of political rationality
The journey has never been about wanting answers or giving answers. It is about creating the conditions of possibility necessary for the search and attainment of answers. That is why Barisan Nasional will not last. This is a different era.
Nouri Farshad, The Malaysian Insider
Mainstream conventional view informs and compels us to believe, especially in Malaysia, that differing, even opposing, perspectives — to push it further, ideologies — cannot be managed in one single platform. Thus democrats, Islamists, socialists or a combination of all three in one association cannot be depended upon for the pursuit of our society’s well-being. I wish to say that not only is this untrue and deceiving, but an attack on the very values of justice, freedom and equality that we hold dearly.
Let us first begin by disclosing and clarifying some of our basic assumptions. Firstly is that the universal and the particular should not be seen as opposites. This dichotomy is unhelpful because it encourages us to think that the values we have in our society or community exclusively belong only to us.
Philosophy is an example of something that is both universal and particular at the same time. Generally, it is an exercise of critical and profound reflection, but at the same within itself there are various forms of philosophy, be it Greek philosophy, German idealism, Islamic philosophy or Eastern philosophy.
Secondly, it is natural that in any free and democratic society or human association there will be diverse beliefs and traditions, even diverging systems of thought and practice. This is a common characteristic and expression of the human condition.
Thirdly, the very idea of the modern concept of reason is; one, to know the limits of reason, and two, to know the limits of political rationality. Therefore the use and practice of reason is to restraint the excesses of reason and political rationality.
So how does all this fit into our society today and how is it related to us? When the president of the MCA tells us that we cannot support the DAP because we will be supporting PAS and consequently hudud law and the Islamic state, or when the president of Umno declares that a vote for PAS will result in the ascendancy of the DAP and thereafter a secular state. For these people such a condition is unacceptable.
