PAS won’t be judged based on language skills, say analysts

They say learning to speak Mandarin or Tamil is not a sure way of wooing non-Malay support.

(FMT) – A political analyst has poured cold water on a call for PAS Youth members to learn Mandarin and Tamil to help the party gain the support of non-Muslims.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Mazlan Ali said this would fail to win over non-Muslims as the community does not evaluate PAS based on its language skills.

He said the party should instead develop a more holistic struggle which includes the interests of non-Muslims in order to attract their support, citing the “PAS for all” slogan popularised by its late former spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

“Through the ‘PAS for all’ slogan, it was evident that there was support from non-Malays and non-Muslims. They saw PAS as a party that would fight for their rights, as its struggle was seen as being more holistic then.

“PAS has now leaned more heavily towards the Malay-Muslim narrative. So its struggles do not attract non-Muslims,” he told FMT.

With Nik Aziz as its spiritual leader, PAS worked with PKR and DAP under the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition. The former Kelantan menteri besar died in February 2015, and PR broke up several months after that.

At its muktamar which ended yesterday, PAS Youth chief Afnan Hamimi Taib Azamudden urged the wing’s members to engage with non-Malays and convey to them the party’s efforts to increase their support.

The Alor Setar MP said if learning Mandarin or Tamil was required, then they should do so, adding that the youth wing had been tasked with drawing in non-Malay support.

Lau Zhe Wei of Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia said PAS was stuck between a rock and a hard place in its ambition of widening its support base.

He said learning Mandarin or Tamil would not help if the majority of PAS’s members remained too conservative.

On the other hand, it would lose the backing of its hardcore supporters and grassroots members if they go too far in trying to woo the non-Muslims. Therefore, Lau said, PAS needs to find a balance.

“For example, they could fight for Muslims to be banned from entering gaming shops, or punished heavily, but not bother when it comes to non-Muslims. They can remain conservative but only for matters involving the Muslim community,” he said.