What are the chances that PAS will support Anwar
The only condition for Pas to consider being the supporting party to Anwar’s rule, likely has to do with its confidence level in Bersatu.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy
In the original Westminster based parliamentary system practised in the UK, whether you are a part of the opposition or the ruling government is a matter of fortune, not mindset.
If fortune smiles on you, you will be a part of the ruling government but if it frowns on you, you will be a part of the opposition. Whether fortune will frown or smile on you depends on the mood of the people. If the people are in the mood for war rather than peace for example, and you belong to the party that wants to spend more on defence rather than education, fortune will smile on you, and you will be a part of the ruling government. If the people are in the mood for peace however, you will probably just end up as the opposition.
In either case, whether you sit with the opposition or the government, you are still considered to be someone who has the mentality of a gentleman. That is why, regardless of whether you are a part of the opposition or the government, you will still be addressed as “the honorable so and so.” You are regarded as a person of honour, regardless of which side of the aisle you sit in, precisely because it is fortune, not mindset, that separates you from the person who sits on the opposite side of the aisle. If fortune changes, so will your seating arrangement, and when your seating arrangement changes, you will be able to execute your new role without a problem, because you have the mindset to perform in either role.
In Malaysia however, whether you are a part of the opposition or the ruling government is not really a question of fortune, but mindset.
It is not a question of fortune because the ones that will rule Malaysia will all come from Umno. We might think that the 2018 and 2022 elections as watershed moment, where the government finally changed hands to a different party, but the fact of the matter is that in 2018 and 2022, the government only changed hand because the opposition was headed by Mahathir and Anwar respectively, who are essentially umno men, except for the fact that they have fallen out with Umno.
Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri, who headed the government between 2018 and 2022 for short periods, were also Umno men. Ismail Sabri is still an Umno man, while Muhyiddin fell out from Umno during the Najib administration.
It is only Umno personalities that are allowed to rule in Malaysia, because it is likely only Umno personalities that are seen to have the ruling mindset. Opposition figures, like PAS or DAP, or supporting party figures, like the figures from MCA or MIC, are just not seen as possessing the ruling mindset.
Now what is this ruling mindset?
Well, the ruling mentality is not the same as the mentality of a gentleman. If it was the same as the mentality of the gentleman, those who rule in the government today will be able to perform as the opposition tomorrow, if their fortunes change. But as we can see in the Malaysian context, this is not the case, because Umno cannot serve as the opposition. It simply doesn’t know how to exist without ruling.
Also, another way of knowing the ruling mentality, is by comparing it with its opposite – which is the opposition mentality.
Opposition mentality is something that is possessed by members of parties like PAS or DAP.
Currently, PAS and DAP are the two biggest parties in Malaysia, but despite that, PAS is still in the opposition, while DAP is just serving as the supporting party of the ruling government, instead of the main party.
The reason why this is the case is because DAP and PAS simply do not possess the ruling mindset that will enable them to rule.
What they possess instead is the opposition mentality, which gears them towards opposing those who are above them, instead of serving those who are below them.
This is why parties like DAP will still be opposing the government even when they are a part of the government. What is more, because they are possessed with the opposition mentality, when they form the government, they might even oppose the people, because it will then be the people who will be their bosses.
It is precisely because DAP personalities are possessed with an opposition mentality, that DAP Ministers like Anthony Loke and Steven Sim are going against the Auditor General, although the auditor general is a part of the government. It is for the same reason that Hannah Yeoh is calling the people “sore losers”, when she was criticised for fangirling over a Thai shuttler who had just beaten our local shuttler in the Olympic games. They do so, because it is their nature to see everyone as being above them, and oppose everyone who they deem to be above them.
PAS also possesses this opposition mentality, and it is precisely because it possesses this opposition mentality, that it tends to ally with parties like Bersatu or Umno , although it is currently the strongest Malay party in the country, that can probably take on both Bersatu and Umno on its own.
It tends to do that, because PAS knows its place. It knows it can’t rule, and thus it merely seeks a role that is fitting for its mentality, which is that of the supporting party of the ruling government.
It tends to ally with Umno or Bersatu because it accepts that it is Umno and Bersatu that have personalities who have the ruling mindset.
It is precisely for this reason that Pas will likely be open to allying with Anwar Ibrahim too, if the rumour mill is to believed, because Pas likely accepts that Anwar also has the ruling mentality, and thus Pas can also serve as the supporting party to Anwar’s rule, if the conditions are right.
The only condition for Pas to consider being the supporting party to Anwar’s rule, likely has to do with its confidence level in Bersatu. For as long as Pas has faith that Bersatu leaders like Muhyiddin and Hamzah might be able to lead the country, it will keep its faith with Bersatu. When it loses faith in Bersatu’s leadership, that is when it will be open to allying with Anwar.
