Will PAS walk the talk in ‘divorcing’ DAP?

Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily

As after a divorce in a real marriage, separation after political marriages of convenience comes with the messy aftermath of divvying up the communal property, friends and other issues of the previous relationship.

Which is also the case in the PAS-DAP ‘divorce’.

One thing which comes to mind beyond the political cooperation under the ambit of the loose Pakatan Rakyat pact, is the involvement of PAS in the state government of the DAP-controlled Penang and vice versa in PAS-controlled Kelantan.

To cut off all ties and to stop cooperation with the DAP, PAS will have to look at the very real possibility of leaving its executive council positions, local authorities and other things that is doled out by virtue of the socialist democratic party being in power in Penang.

PAS of course would have to expect the same out of DAP in Kelantan, as it can by right no longer maintain direct ties with DAP members.

While one can argue that Pakatan rules Selangor, Penang and Kelantan, the truth is the political pact does not officially exist and their cooperation is only ‘on paper’ so to speak.

Technically DAP rules in Penang, PAS in Kelantan and PKR in Selangor.

As the pact is not a legal entity, the individual parties take control of the separate states and then doles out posts and other shares of the spoils to their partners.

Thus when deciding to “divorce” itself from DAP, PAS faces the very real issue of having to leave all its posts and positions in state GLCs (government-linked companies), as well as the state and local governments.

Indeed sarcastic as he is, the defeated outgoing PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu got it right when he announced that he will resign from his posts in the Penang government.

As he argued in his speech at the party muktamar on June 6, this is in accordance with the decision to cut ties with DAP.

“If I don’t obey, they would say I’m not obeying the ulamas,” Malaysiakini quoted him as saying.

As reported, he presently sits on the boards of the Penang Water Corporation and Penang Halal Hub.

This was part of Mohamad’s pointed speech, seemingly goading the party’s ulama leadership that made a clean sweep at the muktamar, where he also took a dig at the DAP bashing which almost seemed to be the muktamar’s theme.

Indeed, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng of DAP has issued a statement saying that he will accept the expected resignation of PAS representatives after the muktamar approved a motion to sever ties with DAP.

“Following the passage of the motion, without allowing for any debate to sever ties with DAP, PAS representatives have no choice but to resign from the Penang state government and its agencies as well as municipal councillors and from village development and security committees (JKKK).

“Whilst I enjoy friendly and good working relations with many PAS representatives, I understand they would have to resign for ethical and moral reasons.

“It would be politically untenable for them to remain in the Penang state government led by me in my capacity as DAP secretary-general, when the PAS muktamar has severed relations with DAP,” he said in the statement.

He also described the PAS decision to sever ties with DAP but still remain in Pakatan Rakyat as “self-contradictory” as the pact is a consensus-based dance of three entities, and there is no halfway step in their choreography.

“Pakatan works on a consensus of all three parties and no one party can decide on Pakatan’s behalf,” he was quoted as saying.

The question now is, will PAS put its money where its mouth was and walk its talk.

And like in any real divorce there is also that awkward thing about how to handle friends, who are his friends and who are her friends, as both sides will now seek to find shoulders to cry on and listening ears.

PKR will be the third wheel so to speak, trapped within its need of both PAS and DAP, but as of now without the magnetic personality of jailed de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, unable to build bridges or mend fences.
What will also be awkward is for PAS to now look back at the urban seats where it claimed that even non-Muslim voters also voted for it.

For in those cases it was operating under the Pakatan ambit, with the cooperation of the DAP.

Now that their cooperation has been tossed aside, will PAS now be able to get similar support, particularly from the Chinese which were said to have turned to the DAP en bloc?

More moderate Malays in urban areas may also be looking at PAS sideways now with its more ‘militant’ Islamic outlook, what with the hudud saga and the more callous stand of ulama leaders.

So not only does it have to step out of the Penang government, but PAS may face the very real possibility of losing its urban seats. as the fallout of the hudud saga and the internal strife which saw the rise of the conservative ulamas, may paint it a tad too garish.