PAS members questioning God’s own party

It is not easy to be “God’s party”. God being God, is perfect and beyond human foibles. 

The thing is, when human beings speak of God, they immediately lose that objectivity and immediately become subjective.

Hence, claiming authority in God’s name is utter nonsense. Even if all one is doing is quoting whatever scripture, the very positioning of the quote itself renders it subjective.

However, all is not lost, last Wednesday the PAS MP for Kota Raja Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud declared that leaving PAS was not tantamount to leaving Islam. One would have thought that was perfectly obvious, but no.

Given the level of PAS’s political discourse hitherto, it was a most needed disavowal.

PAS has a long history of claiming to represent God. There was a time when Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and even the saint like Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat himself claimed that voting for PAS was “wajib” (in Arabic “fardh” and English “obligatory”).

The implications of such a pronouncement are obvious – according to Islamic legal thought, if an act is “wajib” then enacting it bestows spiritual brownie points and rejecting it incurs sin.

A clever manoeuvre, indeed. Given the Malays’ generally blind adherence to the ulama class (Islamic priesthood) class, this manoeuvre worked well. I would go so far as to say that is gave PAS control of both Kelantan and Terengganu in the 1990s.

One can easily witness this in the social media. I was unwillingly added to a rather large Facebook group, called “Friends of PAS”.

It was a fairly large group, numbering 60,000. The contents of this group, if one is to take this as a measure of the level of PAS’s political discourse, were simply not much for the use of reason, if one is to be polite about it.

Hadi is seen by the group’s members as some sort of demi-god. His words are taken uncritically and his enemies most hated.

At this juncture, the PAS progressives who styled themselves as “Gerakan Harapan Baru” and later “Parti Amanah Negara” are the targets of the “Friends of PAS” denizens.

Anyone who dares to question the validity of their departure is simply mowed down by the cult of Hadi.

I do not use the word “cult” lightly but that’s what this space is – a cult’s domain. Even the picture of Hadi posing with a large fish, which is claimed he caught, has become a source of praise!

The above example is to show us what we’re dealing with when it comes to PAS followers.

The relatively recent Malay neologism, “pentaksub” (one who adheres to or follows blindly and almost fanatically) fits their attitude.

Why does this level of blind adherence occur? In my opinion, due to the fear instilled by the ulama themselves about the dangers of free thinking.

It must be remembered that these ulama have a taksub-based economy – an economy dependent upon the blind adherence of the Muslim masses.

There was a picture before of the late Tok Guru leading the ritual Islamic prayers surrounded with bottles for the purpose of “air jampi” (holy water).

Critical and creative thinking is surely the enemy of such practices. Imagine if someone were to ask the late Tok Guru, why do we need him to manufacture air jampi?

Why can’t anyone simply pray and get the water blessed? What about a more fundamental question like what is holy water to begin with? These questions will bring down the ulama’s house of cards as reality would to a mass delusion.

Considering all the above, Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud’s statement must be a bucket of cold water. Leaving PAS is not leaving Islam. Of course, it is not.

PAS is simply like any other political party, vying for the seats of power in order to attain control of Parliament. In order to do so, it must sell its particular product to the masses (air jampi and all). Surely, that PAS has never made a peep about Ketuanan Melayu should be a glaring fact. This durian of a subject is something political parties try not to touch but surely God’s chosen party.

For God’s chosen, they should be forthright in combating outright racism no matter what the consequences to the election results.

The fact is, PAS is only using Islam as a means of boosting electoral support. There is little of PAS activities which is truly Islamic, if we go by the standards of the Quran, then in my opinion PAS has long since strayed from its ideal.

The fact that PAS is silent on the deprivation of the rakyat of their due to the racism of Bumi-ism shows that it is negligent of Prophet Muhammad’s teachings.

As such, I salute Dr Siti Maria and hope she and all right-thinking PAS members would leave this sinking ship. – September 2, 2015.