S Thayaparan
Published: Feb 26, 2024
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Updated: 9:57 AM
“Very often the test of one's allegiance to a cause or to a people is precisely the willingness to stay the course when things are boring, to run the risk of repeating an old argument just one more time, or of going one more round with a hostile or (much worse) indifferent audience.”
COMMENT | Recently, various PAS potentates, including PAS grand poohbah Abdul Hadi Awang, have been issuing diktats that PAS needs to garner non-Muslim support.
PAS Selangor leader Roslan Shahir Mohd Shahir said, “It is proven that DAP continues to incite and create fear among the non-Malays by portraying PAS as a violent extremist party.
“In reality, the Islam championed by PAS is different. In fact, justice and well-being for all guaranteed by Islam is ensured for all. This is PAS’ objective.”
Really? A rational person can hold DAP accountable for many issues plaguing the country but the reason why non-Muslims fear PAS and indeed fear the rising spectre of theocracy in this country is because of PAS and the pusillanimous and enabling responses of this unity government.
The fact that Umno under Dr Mahathir Mohamad for decades demonised PAS and now he hooks up with PAS with his tail between his legs, is evidence of how the work of the religious bureaucracy enabled by the political elites has engineered a polity which is narcotised by race and religion.
Forget that the PAS president has claimed that non-Muslims control the government when they should be "pak turuts". Forget that various Perikatan Nasional representatives have made allegations that there is a Jewish conspiracy linked to political parties to usurp the rights of the Malays in this country.
Forget that the entire system is predicted to not spook the Malays. Forget the fact that PAS-led states are attempting to work outside the perimeters of the constitution of Malaysia disrupting non-Muslim economic activities.
Published: Feb 26, 2024
⋅
Updated: 9:57 AM
“Very often the test of one's allegiance to a cause or to a people is precisely the willingness to stay the course when things are boring, to run the risk of repeating an old argument just one more time, or of going one more round with a hostile or (much worse) indifferent audience.”
- Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir
COMMENT | Recently, various PAS potentates, including PAS grand poohbah Abdul Hadi Awang, have been issuing diktats that PAS needs to garner non-Muslim support.
PAS Selangor leader Roslan Shahir Mohd Shahir said, “It is proven that DAP continues to incite and create fear among the non-Malays by portraying PAS as a violent extremist party.
“In reality, the Islam championed by PAS is different. In fact, justice and well-being for all guaranteed by Islam is ensured for all. This is PAS’ objective.”
Really? A rational person can hold DAP accountable for many issues plaguing the country but the reason why non-Muslims fear PAS and indeed fear the rising spectre of theocracy in this country is because of PAS and the pusillanimous and enabling responses of this unity government.
The fact that Umno under Dr Mahathir Mohamad for decades demonised PAS and now he hooks up with PAS with his tail between his legs, is evidence of how the work of the religious bureaucracy enabled by the political elites has engineered a polity which is narcotised by race and religion.
Forget that the PAS president has claimed that non-Muslims control the government when they should be "pak turuts". Forget that various Perikatan Nasional representatives have made allegations that there is a Jewish conspiracy linked to political parties to usurp the rights of the Malays in this country.
Forget that the entire system is predicted to not spook the Malays. Forget the fact that PAS-led states are attempting to work outside the perimeters of the constitution of Malaysia disrupting non-Muslim economic activities.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang
What non-Muslims need to remember when it comes to PAS is this. When it gains federal power, PAS will lead the effort to disenfranchise the non-Malay vote even more and perhaps even make the non-Malay vote meaningless. This is the plan and PAS has been very open about it.
Just three years ago before the general election, PAS central committee member Khairuddin Aman Razali said: “There are long-term (needs) that require us to win the next general election with a two-thirds majority. (Upon achieving this) the electoral boundaries need to be changed to benefit Muslims.
“We also need to increase the number of parliamentary seats in Malay-majority areas.”
Gerrymandering
Indeed, Hadi said the same when on the last general election stump calling on Muslim parties to unite even briefly so they gerrymander the electoral boundaries even more. Keep in mind that Hadi said on record that the whole goal of hooking up with Umno was securing a supermajority in Dewan Rakyat so they could game the electoral map and make the non-Malay vote irrelevant.
By making the non-Malay vote irrelevant, what they are doing is making non-Malay political power inconsequential. Making non-Muslim political power inconsequential is the very definition of “pak turut”.
Of course, Mahathir, as reported in the press before he hooked up with Pakatan Harapan, said that a Malay party was needed because the multi-racial approach was not well received in rural Malay areas “given disproportionate weightage in the general election”.
And who engineered this gerrymandering to unfairly if democratically stay in power? Well, Umno of course, the Malay-based party which we are told is needed to sustain political power in any alliance in this country.
What non-Muslims need to remember when it comes to PAS is this. When it gains federal power, PAS will lead the effort to disenfranchise the non-Malay vote even more and perhaps even make the non-Malay vote meaningless. This is the plan and PAS has been very open about it.
Just three years ago before the general election, PAS central committee member Khairuddin Aman Razali said: “There are long-term (needs) that require us to win the next general election with a two-thirds majority. (Upon achieving this) the electoral boundaries need to be changed to benefit Muslims.
“We also need to increase the number of parliamentary seats in Malay-majority areas.”
Gerrymandering
Indeed, Hadi said the same when on the last general election stump calling on Muslim parties to unite even briefly so they gerrymander the electoral boundaries even more. Keep in mind that Hadi said on record that the whole goal of hooking up with Umno was securing a supermajority in Dewan Rakyat so they could game the electoral map and make the non-Malay vote irrelevant.
By making the non-Malay vote irrelevant, what they are doing is making non-Malay political power inconsequential. Making non-Muslim political power inconsequential is the very definition of “pak turut”.
Of course, Mahathir, as reported in the press before he hooked up with Pakatan Harapan, said that a Malay party was needed because the multi-racial approach was not well received in rural Malay areas “given disproportionate weightage in the general election”.
And who engineered this gerrymandering to unfairly if democratically stay in power? Well, Umno of course, the Malay-based party which we are told is needed to sustain political power in any alliance in this country.
By denying non-Muslims the right to vote or making it meaningless who they could vote for, the term kafir harbi (for instance) would be dropped because there would not be any opposition to any kind of religious policy. After all, dissent is only meaningful when it affects consequences.
This is democracy, PAS style. This way, PAS gets to claim that Malaysia is an Islamic democracy and carry on winning elections with its fellow Islamic travellers giving a patina of legitimacy to the theocratic state.
Listen to PAS vice-president Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar when asked a simple question like banning Muslims from certain concerts but allowing non-Muslims to participate: “You need to look at it from the point of view of Muslims and the Malays, who are the majority in certain areas. So, if they feel their sensitivities are affected, this will cause a disharmonious atmosphere.”
PAS’ ‘democracy’
This is what “democracy” means to PAS and let us face facts, for the mainstream Malay political and religious establishment. It means always being mindful of the sensitivities of Muslims even though such sensitivities trespass into our private and public spaces.
Indeed, what these religious extremists want is that even in non-Muslims dominated places, the sensitivities of Muslims need to be observed. This is about control. Religious control over non-believers.
So, if PAS/PN believed that the non-Muslim demographic was such a threat to Islam, or if they believed that non-Muslims should be “pak turut” because their dogma defines anyone exercising their democratic rights as kafir harbi, then why not draw up legislation which would give legal validity to all those fears and grievances of the Islamic community when it comes to non-Muslims voting in this country. Why not make this part of their election manifesto?
If PAS/PN were the defenders of Islam in this country and believed that non-Muslims could either be kafir harbi or kafir zimmi, why not legislate on this issue to ensure that the sanctity and supremacy of Islam are defended?
This is the reality, we have in the peninsula a voting polity who do not care about the rights of non-Malays, which are, in reality, rights for everyone, but would rather vote for a coalition that has demonstrated they are willing to suspend those rights. They want non-Malays to be pak turut.
We are dealing with a coalition that has been unshackled by the requirements of multiculturalism or power sharing, which was always a farce anyway, and purely operating on racial and religious imperatives in which they hope to impose majoritarian rule.
These people continue to gaslight the public with terms like democracy and anti-corruption and are aided by a mainstream establishment that does not have the political will to stop them because it fears spooking the Malays.
PAS does not want the non-Muslim vote. It wants to neutralise the non-Muslim vote.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”
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