Staying ahead of the pact

The plus side of making religion your raison d ’etre is the overflowing fervour and abundance of zeal that comes along with it. Religion is largely seen as a holy and just cause, one worth defending and striving for, even at great and extreme personal sacrifice.

On the flip side of the coin, the price of a religious-based struggle would be the subservience to that same religious authority. To question authority is almost seen as questioning that holy cause itself. The cause, and the course in which it is to be attained, its scope and parameters, the where, when and how, is all determined by those who are learned in that religion.

In the context of PAS, this is translated into “kepimpinan ulama” or leadership of the religious scholars. The religious scholars interpret religion and convert it into a general direction of political struggle. This translation is then carried out by the cadres of the party, similar to a doctor prescribing medicine designed by a pharmacological scientist to a patient on the field. But the problem is this: while scientists have an excellent grasp of the complex theories and concepts behind the chemical make-up of the medicine, they still need to rely on the doctor’s feedback on the actual efficacy of the drugs and whether or not patients are, well, say curling up into a green ball and dying from consuming it.

And therein lies the problem with PAS.

In trying to administer what they believe is divine law, it appears they have crossed a very human problem: political backlash, particularly from the non-Muslims and the liberals. Therefore, PAS should not be surprised that it has found itself back in the same support position it was in prior to the 2008 elections, simply because PAS has itself reverted to its position of standing alone against the world. This is despite all the major strides PAS has, against all odds, managed to make in the last two elections in its non-traditional support base – the urban, “liberal” votes.

There was a mild erosion in its traditional support base, with its Islamic credentials being questioned, of course, but what was shocking was the sudden about-turn PAS made.

The conservative faction of PAS had begun to respond to Umno overtures and was suddenly keen to implement hudud in the east coast, particularly in PAS-led Kelantan. This was said to not sit well with many PAS delegates who were already planning a coup of sorts to remove the president in July.

Critics would stand to argue that PAS’s struggle was for an Islamic state governed by hudud all along, but was it necessary to move that quickly? The state hudud criminal shariah enactment had been passed years before, but was unable to be executed as it ran in conflict with federal provisions. So what Kelantan did was essentially to modify a law that had not yet come into effect, unanimously. Things seemed bleak for the liberal movement with the passing of former spiritual leader, Tuan Guru Nik Aziz and the subsequent appointment of the more conservative Dr Haron Din, largely seen as more friendly to Umno, as his appointment.

And rather hurriedly, the PAS president announced he would be tabling a motion in Parliament to modify the laws that were preventing this state law from coming into effect.

All these events seem to have created a ripple effect of sending shivers of unease within the non-Muslim and liberal segments of PAS supporters. Continued unchecked, it could even chip away at public support for PAS’s partners in PR – DAP and PKR. And unlike PAS, PKR and DAP have no rural base to fall back on. That, coupled with the increasingly alienated support base, could cause PAS to drag its two partners down with it.

The exasperation of PAS’s partners in Pakatan Rakyat therefore, is quite understandable. They simply cannot wait till July. Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has to go.

Both parties in their own ways started the campaign against Hadi’s leadership. PKR chose to remain somewhat diplomatic about it, noticeably much sterner than their usually ambivalent position. They went so far as to protest the hudud vote and investigate their own representative who voted for it.

DAP however, went on a little-holds-barred barrage of attacks against Hadi’s leadership, with party veteran Lim Kit Siang even going as far as to suggest a coalition to save Malaysia from an Umno-PAS coalition which he believes would happen. The usually benign PAS grassroots retaliated rather strongly and campaigns were launched to “save PAS” from “outside influence”. PAS cadres sent a clear message that they did not appreciate others meddling in their affairs.

Even if PAS did play a bad hand, and DAP and PKR did go overboard with the interference and attacks, the sliding non-Malay support base isn’t something Pakatan Rakyat should sit idly by and watch happen.

Malaysia is facing a series of challenges as it is and the opposition has been dealt severe blows in strength with the arrest of key leaders, the death of two of its iconic veterans, and a string of internal and external party conflicts. These, coupled with the open rebukes by the palace against PR, should be cause enough for the parties to set aside their differences and work together.

PAS and PKR-DAP need each other’s strengths to cover each other’s weaknesses. What one party lacks in one particular credential, the other makes up for. It’s about time Pakatan Rakyat realises that time is running out and this constant politicking grows tiring and comes at an unfortunate time the electorate is starting to wake up and take stock of issues like governance and capability to rule, as opposed using the ballot box as a means to vent their frustration against the government, government leaders, or government leaders’ wives.

The currently popular idea floated on social media is that “liberal” PAS members forms a new party, PasMa, and contest the elections. While the idea looks good in theory, it is unlikely workable beyond the urban and semi-urban areas that are more politically aware of the goings-on in PAS and would be willing to support this new entity to safeguard, or at least buy themselves a few years more from the implementation of hudud.

PasMa, however, for all intents and purposes, and by its very outlook as “moderate” would likely not be able to bring in the conservative votes that is critical to win the next elections.

The romanticised idea is that PasMa, PKR and DAP, together with the Sabah and Sarawak component parties, would be enough to stave off any unity government PAS and Umno may conjure up. First, Sabah and Sarawak BN component parties will unlikely abandon the Barisan ship, and secondly, this is a rather unhealthy trend which essentially divides Malaysia across a religious-political divide as opposed to an ideological one.

Or perhaps the time has come for PKR, PAS and DAP to realistically work out a tenable partnership in which a minority government could be formed without having the need to pen down complicated and grand frameworks that any component party could, at their whim, choose to completely ignore, as seen recently in the case of PAS. In essence, truly agreeing to disagree without the drama and wayang associated with it.

Whichever way Pakatan decides to ride this down, they should be mindful of the rural Sabah and Sarawak votes and that time is ticking against them and the ball is in their court to propose a viable alternative to the ruling coalition to the people of Malaysia. Don’t allow the undoing of a political coalition lead to a spiralling undoing of Malaysia. – March 31, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.