Crouching tiger, hidden leopard – Dilemma in GE-13

The political choice in GE-13 for many non UMNO & non PAS voters has become a dilemma, a very serious one, though some (but not all) are prepared to go for broke and take a chance.

Unusually, it’s not UMNO or any of its media mouthpieces which has thrown the apple (or thorny durian) of discord into the political arena. It was Harun Taib, PAS’ Ulama Cheif, who did so when he declared that our legal system will have Hudud if PAS wins more seats than allies.

While that declaration by itself, that of embracing hudud, is not new, and a known aspiration of PAS, what has been far more worrying was Harun Taib’s assertion that PAS will implement hudud regardless, as evident in his reported words “… if not with the current partners we have in Pakatan… may be there will be other pacts that will lend us their support …”.

If that doesn’t smack of arrogant go-it-alone-after-winning treachery, what is it then? What kind of coalition partner is PAS?

PAS has previously admitted that in more than 60 federal constituencies, the non-Muslim votes could be the crucial factor in securing wins over its principal political opponent UMNO. It currently relies upon its Pakatan allies to help it gain non-Muslim support, especially Chinese votes, to ensure an edge over UMNO in those seats. PAS has already enjoyed considerable samplings of this Pakatan cooperative approach, both during GE-12 and in some subsequent by-elections. 

PAS’ election benefits have been sterling examples of cooperative support of multi-party alliance where, for example, DAP would convince non-Muslims to vote PAS in preference to UMNO while PAS in reciprocation would campaign for DAP in Muslim areas. But an alliance, apart from involving quid pro quo arrangements as above, also has mutual understandings or agreements, essentially on a raft of high level policies, where one non-negotiable of DAP would be NOT to change Malaysia’s current (civil laws) legal system into a theocratic judicial (syariah) system.

But perhaps precisely because of PAS’ election benefits from support of non-Muslim voters, buttressed by encouraging signs from the recent massive multi-ethnic support for Bersih 3.0, it has allowed itself to suffer from an excessive exuberant eidolon that by itself it enjoys broad appeal and popularity, and allowed the erroneous euphoric expectations of virtual victory to run riotously rampant in its head, and in so doing, has not only ignored its DAP ally’s aversion to changing the nation’s legal system, but arrogantly told it to stuff it.

PAS now believes it can go it alone, and to f* with its current allies (specifically DAP) if they won’t come to the hudud party (excuse the unintended pun).

Let’s re-examine what Harun Taib meant by his arrogant words of “… if not with the current partners we have in Pakatan… may be there will be other pacts that will lend us their support …”.

Pray tell me, what ‘other pacts’ will possibly lend PAS their support in the event of a Pakatan victory in GE-13 but with a DAP (or even PKR) refusal to support PAS in its demand to implement hudud?

Now, what was that remarkable political term so loved by PAS people like Hadi Awang, Nasharudin Mt Isa, Azizan Abdul Razak and (lurking or just standing by in the nearby shadow) Hasan Ali?

Malay unity! Specifically one with UMNO!

What Harun Taib has said was just (unmistakably) this: If Pakatan wins in GE-13, and PAS has a sizable number of federal MPS, it will if necessary combine with UMNO (and perhaps the Chosen Ones of PKR) to implement hudud.

You can spin it any which way you like, like Hadi Awang’s sweet nothing Let’s celebrate our differences to Karpal Singh’s voiced concerns about PAS’ hudud intention, but there’s no mistaking PAS’ openly voiced intention to jettison the alliance like a used tissue paper, of course after it has already won enough seats with support from (DAP/PKR canvassed) non-Muslim votes.

The problem with celebrating the ‘difference’ Hadi Awang alluded to, namely hudud, is that once the Islamic legal system has been implemented, non-Muslims will discover too late it’s not something they will imagine celebrating, assuming that celebrations, especially those of non-Muslim variety like Valentine’s Day, concerts by foreign artists, wearing of lipstick and perfumes, Lion Dances, dancing, Thaipusam, Cheng Beng, etc, will even be permitted.

Therefore, those apologists who have attempted to dismiss Karpal Singh’s (and my) concerns that it won’t affect non-Muslims or that if non-Muslims have done nothing wrong they shouldn’t be worried about hudud, have not convinced any of us, more so when we have witnessed in so many other nations ruled by syariah-hudud laws that such laws in the hands of unaccountable clerics have oppressed rather than protect the rights of the ordinary people. Please name me one, just one Islamic nation anywhere in the world, as a model of good governance, and a nation where social justice, human rights and democratic processes are upheld.