MGG Pillai Commentary View

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PAS Muktamar: Proof of the pudding is in the eating

THE PRESS COVERAGE of the PAS Muktamar (in effect, its annual general meeting) in Kota Bharu over the weekend was, by Malaysian standards, unexpected. They had gathered there to see PAS leaders fight amongst themselves as the party set its sights into the future. But they went away disappointed. None of that happened. Instead the muktamar let young leaders take over for the fight ahead, a revolution within that only two political parties attempted since the Second World War. When Loi Tek scampered with Malayan Communist Party (MCP) funds in 1947, its cadres chose the 28-year-old Chin Peng to succeed him, and who led the communist insurgency in Malaya and now lives in comfortable retirement in Thailand. The Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) in the 1990s decided the old must make way for the young, with only the President, Dr Syed Husin Ali, remaining amongst the old guard, and that made it easier for it to merge with Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

The PAS change took place peacefully. The press, radio and television reported it, hoping against hope as the muktamar wound its way to its close for the fireworks would make it worth their while. And got more media coverage than it would have otherwise. But PAS leaders had decided that unless it made its message acceptable to both Malays and non-Malays they cannot hope to attain power except by accident. They succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. And got the best press coverage it had had in decades. For at the end of the muktamar, PAS emerged into the mainstream of Malaysian politics firmly as never before, and locked horns with UMNO for Malay support and, ultimately, leadership. It accepted the principle that politics is the art of the possible, and invited the jailed former deputy prime minister and UMNO deputy president, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, to lead an opposition coalition in the next general election, and even called for a royal pardon without which he could well have to sit out the next general election.

It is not an easy transition. The divide is still there, the traditional ulamas who see their role as no more than the Islamisation of Malaysia and the newer leaders who believe they must move with the times. For without power, no political plan can work. But the PAS president, Ustadz Haji Hadi Awang, turned out to be a far shrewder politicians than any in PAS could dare hope. He understands politics and the use of power better than most politicians. He had come to power by accident, after the sudden death of its charismatic leader, Dato' Fadhil Noor, who died on the operating table. He remains a forbidding figure but with a mind that accepts a view, even on Islam, other than his own. I have found, in my many talks with him over the years – I first met him in 1982 – that for all his presumed obscurantist thinking, he is far more liberal in his views that I have found many ulema to be. He believes in an islamic state but he realises why it would not be easy if he cannot carry all the Malays and many non-Malays with him. I dare say that few PAS leaders could have presided over such dramatic changes as in the muktamar.

UMNO, as usual, is at a loss for words. The UMNO deputy president (and Malaysian deputy prime minister), Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, could only call on Malays to be wary of PAS for it aims to split them, ignoring the harsh reality that UMNO it is which splits the Malays with its lurch into Islamic politics to counter PAS's growing influence and walking away from its leadership of the cultural Malay, to whom Islam is an important part of his being, to Islam being more important than his cultural heritage. It took this line, as usual without thought, because the Malay deserted to PAS and its Islamic message when UMNO got so caught up in the desire to retain control that it forgot those who voted them in. The revolution and reformation in UMNO is a long way ahead, but it believes there is no need for that so long as there is Dato' Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Islam Hadhari to succour the people. One need not add, that before him UMNO laid its whole future in the hands of Tun Mahathir Mohamed and his skewed modernisation plans for 22 years. As his would be when his successor takes office.

However one looks at it, PAS has succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. It began as an offshoot of UMNO's religious wing, whose leaders walked out with the first UMNO president, Dato' Sir Onn Jaffar, in 1951, its modest Islamic credentials hardened into a demand for a theocratic Malay Islamic state as younger leaders, educated in the Middle East, took over. What made that transformation easier was UMNO's decision, in the aftermath of the May 13 riots in 1969, to convert the education system to Malay, not in thought and reflection but as a political necessity. The older PAS leaders gave way to the new, radicalised Muslim clerics, of whom Ustadz Hadi was one. They preached a message which frightened Malays and non-Muslims alike. But they came in at the right time. Their influence grew as UMNO and the BN it led decided the only yardstick of progress is to turn Malaysia into a pastiche of the Western cities they are so used to holidaying in, by force if necessary.

PAS, with its radicalised political programme, was there to catch the Malay fallout in its wings. The disaffected Malays found solace in Islam, and the PAS political programme became music to their ears. UMNO then committed seppukku in 1998, when it sacked its deputy president and humiliated him in a series of actions that beggars belief. That was enough for the Malay middle class to revolt, and provide the disadvantaged Malay and Malaysian with leaders who could cow the establishment. Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim became that leader. PAS cleverly latched on to him, and has now asked him to lead an Opposition coalition in the next general election. But to have him accepted amongst the PAS rank and file required a major change amongst its top leaders. And they decided it was time to let the younger leaders replace them, for in their view the aim is political power not personal glorification as political leaders. UMNO, on the other hand, is still debating if suspended party members should continue to hold their government posts!

The election of Ustadz Nasharuddin Mat Isa, 42, of younger non-ulama leaders as vice-presidents, and of fresh blood in the central committee – 30 per cent of whom are new – reflects a reality PAS now accepts as irreversible should it hope to attain power in the centre and states other than with a wholly Muslim and Malay majority. It puts aside its policy plank of an Islamic Malaysia, a view its younger members view as a long-term objective. For UMNO, this is a frightening development: as it lurches towards an Islamic state, PAS moves away from it! It is caught in a conundrum in which young Malays out of university opt for UMNO if riches and wealth beyond greed is their aim, and to PAS and PKR if it is politics, service and a desire to change Malaysia for the good.

There is, as an UMNO member critical of his leaders told me this week, a method in the PAS 'madness'. A political party cannot force its views on its members for long, and the one that lasts is the one which changes well before its rank and file desires it. PAS has done the unthinkable. The pundits and commentators will tell you how disastrous this could be. There is a possibility that all these changes could come to nought. If it does, it gives PAS another chance to reform itself, learning from its past mistakes. And that is preferable to a leader insisting he ought to stay at the helm – after 20 years there – longer since the 'people' need him. But that is what happens when political leaders do not look beyond the next general election.

[This is my column in the latest issue of Harakah (for the fortnight ending June).]

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com