Why PAS wants Dr M to shut up
The party is at a loss to explain its cooperation with “infidels”.
Roslan Bistamam, Free Malaysia Today
PAS is upset that former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has criticised its Tahaluf Siyasi (political consensus) with non-Muslim parties and told him to shut his mouth.
First of all, is this the Islamic thing to do? Since PAS is an Islamic party, should not Islam be the basis of all its policies? Didn’t the Caliph Umar invite the people to criticise him if he did something wrong? Being vocal and critical—and tolerating criticism—are attitudes that are supposed to represent Islamic values.
PAS, being a member of Pakatan Rakyat, talks about freedom of speech. In fact, it even wants the Sedition Act to be abolished because this law is an obstacle to freedom of speech and freedom to criticise. Yet PAS wants to deny Mahathir his freedom to speak and to criticise.
Secondly, was it not PAS that 30 years ago called Umno a kafir or infidel party for cooperating or forming a political alliance with non-Muslims?
This was what Mahathir said in January 2013:
From its inception the leaders of the Pan Malayan Islamic Party (PMIP) now known as PAS (Parti Islam SeMalaysia), in their quest for support condemned Umno members as infidels (kafir) for cooperating with non-Muslims. This was followed in April 1981 by Hadi Awang’s statement that Umno members were infidels because Umno perpetuates the constitution of the colonialist, perpetuates the rules and regulations of the infidels, perpetuates the rules of the pre-Islamic Arabs, the Jahiliah.
The statement Mahathir referred to is what is known as Amanat Hadi Awang. The word “amanat” is Arabic. In Malay, it denotes a legacy in the form of advice or counsel from an elder.
