The Economist: Malaysian politics to pivot on PAS ulama choice
(Malay Mail Online) – The direction of Malaysia’s political scene will rest heavily on how the dominant cleric or ulama faction in PAS responds to the disintegration of Pakatan Rakyat, The Economist wrote today.
Despite the attention on how the Islamist party’s progressive faction will react to its recent trouncing at the PAS Muktamar, the London-based daily said it was the victorious ulama who will have a bigger effect over how local politics plays out amid crises in both the ruling Barisan Nasional and the federal opposition parties.
“Much hinges on how PAS’s dominant conservative wing chooses to proceed.
“The party’s ageing leaders seem to think that time is running out to introduce hudud in Kelantan and look willing to reach some form of accommodation with Umno, despite a history of antagonism, in order to achieve it,” the report said.
Going with Umno will, however, entrench Malaysia’s already divisive politics that trade heavily on the contentious issues of race and religion, even as the country experiences growing conservatism and religious fundamentalism.
Umno has long tempted PAS on the grounds of Muslim unity and the former party’s state lawmakers also threw their support behind the Islamist party’s bid to amend Kelantan’s hudud law in March.
Following the disintegration of PR, a PAS leader has also suggested a new coalition comprising only of Muslims.
The Economist noted in its piece that Umno’s support for PAS has so far been tacit, as illustrated by Putrajaya’s refusal to state its stand on hudud during Parliament this week, to the chagrin of PAS lawmakers.
“But it would also see Malaysia’s poisonous politics split more cleanly along ethnic lines — hardly a heartening thought,” the business daily concluded.
DAP this week proclaimed that PR no longer exists following the PAS decision to sever ties with the former.
PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail this week also said that the pact has stopped to function “officially”, while her deputy, Azmin Ali, yesterday denied that Pakatan Rakyat has ceased to exist.
Azmin is attempting to keep a coalition government including all three parties in Selangor despite the breakup, but is being pressed to choose between DAP and PAS to remain in his administration.
PAS election director Datuk Mustafa Ali was quoted in media reports as saying yesterday that the Islamist party will continue to work with PKR to keep PR alive, saying that the coalition is not dead and merely “pengsan” ― the Malay word for fainted.
Separately, there are rumblings that the defeated PAS progressives may exit the party and joined a rumoured new political party to be formed by spinoff group Persatuan Ummah Sejahtera Malaysia that is seen as the potential replacement for PAS in the federal opposition pact.
