GHB – the party for Malays who are looking for a home
Umar Mukhtar
Will GBH, which is made up of breakaway elements of PAS, be a political party that has legitimate political beliefs? They believe that UMNO is corrupt and not Islamic. They believe that PAS is too conservative to be able to be working partners with Non-Muslims. So why don’t they just join PKR, a party which also believes the same and is already multi-racial?
That’s the fallacy of GHB’s planned existence. The corrupt of the Malays are already in UMNO and the liberal Malays who hate UMNO are already in PKR. And the Islamic conservatives are in PAS. So who will be GHB followers then?
Most of the votes that put these so-called progressives into prominence were from the conservative members of PAS. When the progressives demanded that their hosts follow their style and beliefs, they were kicked out from having a leadership role in the party. Decisively.
It seems they now assume, despite the rejection, that the many Malays who were among those who voted for them are not these conservatives Malays. They were like the progressives themselves, still looking for a home. PAS was only the custodian of their souls but not a vehicle to be in when working with Non-Muslims like Lim Kit Siang. Hence GHB.
Perhaps the west coast urban Muslims do subscribe to that, if they hadn’t already joined PKR. In fact, when it was announced that GHB will accept non-Malay members, now it sounded like it’s PKR. The only conclusion you can come to, then, is that these people don’t think PKR is a good party. GHB will be better and more Arabic, though secular.
Why the need to work with the Lim Kit Siang-type? Because Malaysia is a multi-racial country and the progressives can’t work with MCA/Gerakan. Good. GHB must be the Lim Kit Siang type then. How is Lim Kit Siang confident of that expectation when GHB is still not even formed? He will make sure of that. He will sponsor it and nurture it from within the womb!
The progressives are getting new hosts. The meagre Chinese votes in the constituencies they are allowed to run in will vote for them, at LKS’ behest. When the progressives joined PAS, they got the conservatives’ votes because they gave the impression that they know the secret to how to work with LKS without selling their Islamic souls to the devil. They showed that the trick to be liked by LKS is to do what LKS likes. No deal, the conservatives decided.
So the stories about how close from the stone-age the ulamaks are, is the progressives’ favourite teh-tarik topics. UMNO and PKR used to say that too. The progressives just found that out after more than a decade of rubbing shoulders with ulamaks. The truth is they knew, but were hoping that the progressives will be so popular as to overwhelm the ulamaks. No deal. In a decade they will have horror stories too about their new hosts, DAP.
The truth is the difference between PAS and GHB is that the former doesn’t really mind losing in elections as long as it remains true to its ideology, while GHB wants power, and losing elections will be fatal. Their dreams of being the political arm of a religious movement showed their twisted understanding of Islam as a ‘deen’ – a way of life where there is no separation between politics and religion. DAP beware. You may be hosting the heretics.
