The shaky Pakatan alliance

By admin-s Last updated Sep 15, 2014

PAS and PKR/DAP are enemies fighting a common enemy, Umno. The true nature of the relationship will emerge if they take over Putrajaya.

Roslan Bistamam, FMT

When it was revealed that PAS member Mohd Lotfi Ariffin had gone to Syria to fight for IS (Islamic State), he was immediately sacked from the party because, according to PAS, the party does not support terrorism.

But now that Lotfi has been killed in action, some senior PAS leaders – Mahfuz Omar and Nik Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz, in particular – are singing his praises.

So it looks like while the party does not officially endorse Lotfi’s action, it does in a way support him. It regards him as a true jihadist worthy of praise.

PAS is a member of Pakatan Rakyat but this does not mean DAP and PKR agree with PAS in matters involving its aspiration to set up an Islamic state. Indeed PKR and DAP have made clear their opposition not only to the setting up of an Islamic state but also the imposition of hudud laws.

Pakatan is an awkward alliance. DAP and PKR may agree with some of the ideals of the Islamic party, but on the doctrinal level, they are poles apart.

PAS has reiterated that it has not abandoned its quest to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state or to introduce Islamic laws in Malaysia. DAP and PKR do not support PAS on this. And DAP and PKR will go all out to ensure that PAS does not succeed in its aspirations.

So it looks like the greatest obstacle to PAS are DAP and PKR. And yet PAS regards DAP and PKR as comrades and Umno as the adversary. Do they not say that politics make strange bedfellows?

PAS sees itself as the alternative to Umno; so it needs to work with DAP and PKR to dislodge Umno. If PAS works with Umno, it will never be able to dislodge the party but will just be playing second fiddle to the largest political party in Malaysia.

PAS does not regard DAP and PKR as friends. It does, however, regard Umno as the enemy. And DAP and PKR are also Umno’s enemies.

So the logical thing would be to work with Umno’s enemies to try to dislodge the largest political party in Malaysia and once that happens PAS can take over Umno’s place as the new largest political party in the country.

Hence PAS is just working with the enemies of the Islamic state and Islamic laws to fight a bigger enemy.