Time to go it alone and see who prevails
The current rift in PR over hudud shows all too clearly that a pact between secularists and Islamists was bound to end in disaster.
TK Chua, Free Malaysia Today
Please allow me to express my modest thoughts on the present impasse on hudud within Pakatan Rakyat.
First the synopsis: Can we say that DAP is against hudud, PKR is unsure (it depends), and PAS is certain for hudud? I think this is about right.
Second, it would appear that PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang is the main culprit, at least based on DAP’s view. If Hadi is out, DAP could perhaps still be able to work with PAS in PR. Of course, the big assumption here is PAS’s leaders-in-waiting are different from Hadi.
But are they really different? How do we know these leaders will not have the same ambition as Hadi? To my simple mind, if they did not have the same ambition as Hadi, they would have joined UMNO, PKR, DAP or PSM, not PAS.
Third, let’s look at Kelantan’s enactment on hudud. All PAS and the single PKR ADUN (together with UMNO) unanimously supported and approved the amendment. Okay fair enough, maybe that was just a game of chivalry they played.
However has not PAS, as a political party, consistently stated that an Islamic State and hudud are the party’s raison d’être?
Well, we console ourselves and provide excuses again – maybe this is just an ideal, like some have said; “hudud (and the setting up of an Islamic state) are not going to happen” and it is “stupid” to discuss it.
Fourth and here is the interesting part. PKR (through Azmin Ali) now says hudud is perfectly okay – that the objection to it was a matter of “timing” and the “correct way” to implement the Islamic law. Of course what constitutes “right timing” and the “correct way” were never contemplated on before. But by implication, Azmin is saying there is a more “suitable time” and a more “correct way” to implement hudud sometime in the future.
This leads me to my fifth point – how is DAP going to react to this? Is DAP now saying that if PAS has a different leader other than Hadi, if the timing is right, and if the correct way is found, the party will agree to the implementation of hudud?
Now, if you are confused (trust me, I am too), please go back to my synopsis in point one.
That is why agreeing to disagree is a dangerous thing to get into. We allow political parties with different ideologies and ideals to attract people of different political beliefs and inclinations into their respective parties and then expect them to work together as a coalition.
