PAS’s political partners are the ‘true enemies of Islam’, columnist says
(MM) – PAS’s political partners are “enemies of Islam” and are slyly using the Islamist party to merely win political control, controversial columnist Ridhuan Tee Abdullah has said.
In his column in Sinar Harian, Ridhuan Tee said he had repeatedly warned PAS to be wary of the political parties that he termed collectively as “ultra kiasu”, appearing to allude to PAS’s allies in the opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat — the secular-based DAP and urban-centric PKR.
The local academic said that PAS’s allies were allegedly more trusting of Umno’s apparently more open stance towards Islam in comparison to PAS’s more orthodox Islamist credentials.
“Ultra kiasu only wants PAS’s votes to rule a few states where their numbers are quite big, like Penang, Selangor and Perak, and not impossibly, Malacca and Negri Sembilan after this.
“Ultra kiasu knows it will not win without PAS’s support. To fulfil that evil ambition, the ultra kiasu is forced to cooperate bermuka-muka (two-facedly) with PAS. Although its political goals are very different: one wants Islam, another is very much against Islam,” the senior lecturer at the National Defence University wrote in an opinion piece titled “Ultra kiasu musuh Islam sebenar” (Ultra kiasu the true enemies of Islam).
Ridhuan Tee slammed the utlra kiasu which he claimed was proven to be “anti-Islam” and against anything related to the religion, saying that they purportedly support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) despite a ban by their religions.
He accused PAS’s partners of cunningly maintaining their stand against Islam while working with the party, later claiming that the ultra kiasu has shifted its strategy from merely controlling the economy to grabbing both economical and political power.
“Look at the way the ultra kiasu adapts itself. Last time, it did not talk to PAS at all, because PAS wants an Islamic country. The ultra kiasu knows, without PAS’s support it cannot rule certain states. Therefore, the ultra kiasu changed its strategy but are still firm about its stand against Islam. This is the cunning of the ultra kiasu,” said Ridhuan, who is also a Chinese Muslim convert.
Although Ridhuan believed that PAS was aware of the ultra kiasu’s allegedly evil intentions, he said the party was willing to work with it due to its deep hatred of its arch-rival Umno.
Last Thursday, the Islamist party’s ulama wing called on PAS to leverage its membership in the PR federal opposition to implement Islamic law in the states administered by the pact.
In stressing its call for PAS to re-examine its partnership with DAP and PKR, the wing, consisting of Islamic clerics, questioned whether it has benefited Islam, even as they conceded that it has succeeded politically.
But last Friday, party delegates came out strongly in the PAS muktamar (annual conference) to reaffirm their wish to stay in the federal opposition pact, citing success in the May 5 general election in which the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition were denied the popular vote for the first time since 1969.
On the same day, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang conceded today that the party has never felt that it is a “passenger” in the
coalition, even as he admitted that the “tahaluf siyasi” is yet to be perfected.
The term “tahaluf siyasi” that means “political consensus” and is used to describe PAS’s working arrangement with its allies in PR.
Following Election 2013, PR now governs Penang, Selangor and Kelantan, losing Kedah after its one-term rule there.
PAS saw its political fortunes diminish in last May’s national polls when it bagged 21 parliamentary seats, two fewer than what it won in the watershed 2008 General Election, when the opposition denied BN a two-thirds parliamentary majority.
The Islamist party trailed behind PR partners DAP, which increased its parliamentary representation by 10 seats with a tally of 38, and PKR, which despite losing one seat, still managed a respectable 30 spots in Parliament.
