Provoking PAS
It is fine if you cannot sleep in the same bed. It is not fine when your disagreement is fuelling the hatred between Malays and Chinese.
Mak Khuin Weng
Everything in Malaysia is going haywire with the smallest of provocations threatening to erupt into a full blown racial issue.
Many have weighed in on this issue, but I feel there’s one piece of the puzzle that needs to be identified and discussed in a rational manner if we are ever going to address this racial issue, and this has to do with our two major opposition parties DAP and PAS.
DAP has been busy hammering PAS over all manner of alleged sins and PAS is slowly reciprocating the bashing. To the supporters of both parties, the words of their respective leaders ring true and the insolence of the other side shall be punished soon enough.
Our two biggest opposition parties – each representing a major racial group in Malaysia – is at loggerheads and their message to each other is that they will annihilate the other. This sort of disputes can easily come across as a provocative racial issue.
While I absolutely do not agree with the PAS political ideology (especially on Hudud), I am not blind to the power and influence they are politically. To anyone who doubts that PAS is a force to be reckoned with, all I can say is that they have forgotten that the first BERSIH rally – the rally that inspired the entire nation to rise up against BN – was only possible because of PAS.
That reported 100,000 participants for the first rally; that is 95 percent PAS members. I was there and the number of Chinese and Indian participants was barely a handful. Every one of the members I interacted with at the first rally told me they were PAS members from Kelantan or Terengganu.
This is the PAS that opposed Umno. This is the PAS that DAP is trying to teach us to hate. This is the PAS that is now looking to join forces with Umno.
It is fine if you cannot sleep in the same bed – sit down and go through your disagreements one by one until you reach an amicable solution and move on. It is not fine when your disagreement is fuelling the hatred between Malays and Chinese.
DAP leaders may think they have overwhelming support and can afford to make PAS angry, but they forget that it is PAS that stands between them and Umno. If PAS joins forces with Umno, I am very certain all of us peace loving Malaysians will regret it.
I may not agree with PAS’ political struggle, but I can at least admire and respect them for opposing BN. Now, I’m not so sure PAS wants to oppose Umno anymore.
The Chinese are only kingmakers if the Malays are not united. Think about this carefully before you simply whack PAS and urge them to sleep with Umno. They just might.
