Sting in the tail (or at the end)

Malaysiakini – PAS ready to rule M’sia with Pakatan, declares Hadi reported:

“PAS conducts tahaluf siyasi with an understanding that Pakatan Rakyat upholds the concept of commonality and not focus on differences,” he said.

“This tahaluf siyasi should not make us lose sight of PAS members’ understanding towards the concept of Fiqh al-Taat (loyalty) to the party,” he said.

Harakah Daily – Hadi outlines ways to set right the economy

Hadi said should PAS be given the mandate to rule as part of Pakatan Rakyat, the party would strive for a shift to an economic philosophy that was fairer.

“In this regard, the fiscal as well as the fair monetary policy must be utilised fully to pace growth,” he said, adding that future implementation of economic policy must be complemented by the concept of reward and punishment according to the Shariah, holistic accountability and preventive laws to prevent extravagance, leakage, fraud and corruption.

These are not just the words of a PAS President but that of a PM-in-waiting.

Pak Haji has now projected his very very presidential prime ministerial persona, and proclaims he/PAS is “ready” to rule Malaysia …. er … together with Pakatan of course.

Throughout his more than 2-hour speech at the PAS Muktamar, he studiously avoided any mention of the hudud word, and stressed instead on PAS’ concept of an Islamic welfare state.

Coincidentally, The Malaysian Insider (TMI) had carried the news earlier that some leading PAS delegates want party leaders to tread lightly on sensitive issues where it reported:

Several PAS delegates have expressed fear that the outspokenness and eagerness of some leaders to comment on sensitive issues would only invite trouble for the party ahead of the coming general election.

Though they used Nurul Izzah’s ‘no compulsion in religion’ as the example to showcase the improper, inappropriate and indiscreet haste of some over-eager PAS leaders to speak out, and unwittingly use words which could hurt PAS’ election prospects, I suspect those PAS delegates have something more important in mind, namely, the implementation of PAS avowed hudud.

Today, TMI’s Muktamar PAS lebih matang, elak bicara isu sensitif untuk kekal sokongan bukan islam left us in no doubt on that, reporting clearly PAS’ pre-election strategy:

Muktamar Tahunan PAS ke-58 yang terakhir menjelang pilihan raya umum (PRU) ke-13 akan melabuhkan tirainya hari ini dilihat lebih matang berbanding tahun sebelumnya, kata penganalisis politik tanah air.

Mereka turut berpendapat, PAS dilihat mengamalkan sikap berhati-hati dalam menyentuh isu sensitif seperti hudud yang berkemungkinan akan memberikan kesan sokongan daripada penyokong bukan Muslim mereka.

In short, … (translated in kaytee’s way) … so far so good mateys, you’ve shown maturity but make sure you don’t blurb out sensitive stuff that’ll frighten away the non-Muslim votes for PAS.

To be fair, PAS has never hidden the fact it is an Islamic party with an Islamic obligation to turn Malaysia into its vision of what an Islamic country should be.

And no matter how many examples or empirical evidence we present to it in hopes those would convince the Islamic party that a syariah system, inclusive of hudud, will not cure away or even minimize corruption, injustice and misrule or for that matter, install a better regime of social justice, proper governance and compassion (as per the Compassion of Allah swt), it will fall on their deaf ears …

… as PAS firmly believes it’s not only its Islamic duty to implement hudud successfully but that it can do what couldn’t be done/achieved in other Islamic hudud-ruled countries like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and even Shia Iran, etc.

In those and any other Islamic countries, you will not find one single Islamic country which can demonstrate those aspired Islamic qualities of social justice, proper governance and compassion, as ironically can be found in many secular nations.

Hudud!

Aiyah, PAS obviously hasn’t heard of the non-Islamic advice given by:

(a) Lord Acton who said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men“, or

(b) British PM William Pitt the Elder who advised “Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it“, or

(c) French poet Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine who gave us “It is not only the slave or serf who is ameliorated in becoming free … the master himself did not gain less in every point of view, … for absolute power corrupts the best natures.”

And that’s what a hudud-ruled nation would confer on its leaders, total unchallengeable unquestionable absolute power as witnessed in Afghanistan under the Taliban, Iran under the ayatollahs, Saudi Arabia, etc, and even a whiff of that in our own Kedah where PAS has passed legislation stating its fatwa’s may not be questioned or challenged.

The common denominator of hudud-ruled countries seems to be the 3-P’s, that of ‘prohibit’, ‘persecute’ (note, not ‘prosecute’) and ‘punish’.

Missing instead are the 3-C’s of ‘counselling’, ‘care’ and ‘compassionate’ (a la the Compassion of Allah swt).

Nonetheless, for PAS to achieve its religious dream it must first be in (majority) rule, and that in turn relies on two equally important factors.

Firstly, it must win for itself mucho federal parliamentary seats, on which it is fairly dependent on non-Muslim votes, to help secure, say, around 60-ish federal parliamentary seats if not more. Every single vote counts a la Julia Fietcher Carney’s:

Naturally, at this most crucial moment (on the eve of GE-13) it most certainly doesn’t want some inflexible (immature, wakakaka) hardcore ulama to say stuff that will frighten away its non-Muslim supporters …

… non-Muslim supporters whom it has now gained substantially for the first time in its long history, thanks to a combination of the brilliant strategy by its Erdogen faction (one which Pak Haji Hadi Awang joined late, perhaps after his ulama eyes were opened to the ‘bigger picture’) and the support of its Pakatan allies.

The ABU campaign which I only support with much reservation and many qualifications has also contributed greatly to the pro-PAS non-Muslim supporters’ blind rage to get rid of everything and anything BN, even if the consequences can in some cases be far more forbidding.

In this, PAS’ Erdogan-ists have to be complimented for brilliantly projecting to the non-Muslims that it’s an inclusive political party with the welfare of the rakyat foremost in mind. Of course in the process it had to marginalize those obdurately blinkered Myrmidon ulamas within its fold.

So basically, it’s a crucial juncture in time that calls for the following reminders: