At the Brink of Disaster for Pakatan Rakyat or the Realisation of Hudud in the Not Too Far Future?

It is the first time that PAS has put on record the party’s desire to endorse its leader to be the Prime Minister.

This time around they are dead serious in wanting to take the lead if Pakatan Rakyat came to power in the next general election.

Initially PAS have been evasive in making its stand, perhaps for fear of reprisals but now they seem to have an upper hand and a strong grip of what they want.

Clearly there was a resounding voice at the recent PAS 58th Muktamar with the delegates making no qualms of their intention for its party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to helm the country’s leadership.

Bear in mind that the Muktamar is the highest decision making body of the Islamist party and such an endorsement meant the party means business in wanting the big piece of the pie.

Certainly they wont budge nor settle for anything less. They feel that they are on track to grab power from the Barisan Nasional government and want to pursue their ultimate agenda of Islamising the country’s administration and judicial system.

And their unwavering Islamic cause is reinforced by the firm statement of Ulama Council vice-chief Datuk Dr Mahfodz Mohamed at the Muktamar that it is NOT IMPOSSIBLE to implement hudud if they have the most parliamentarians.

This is despite the assurance by DAP’s deputy chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw that the party had not agreed for hudud to be part of Pakatan’s common framework policy due to lack of consensus.

Even if there was a common framework, it is merely a loose term to outline an understanding which is not cast in stone. It does not stipulate that it is mandatory that all parties should adhere to it strictly. It is ambiguous and not binding.

Further more, it is a known fact that PAS had disregarded the views of its Pakatan allies when introducing its ala Taliban style of administration. What is there to stop them from implementing hudud then.

What can the DAP do. The party had been told off before that the exit door is open for them to leave anytime if they continued to speak up against hudud. It was deafening silence since then, with the exception of its lone leader Karpal Singh speaking up.

PAS would definitely have the upper hand. Hadi had said it before that PAS would contest for 80 parliamentary seats and that DAP would contest 50 to 60 seats in the coming elections.

In the words of Hadi : “PAS being the Malay-Islamist party is the backbone of Pakatan Rakyat”. In other words, he is telling the rest of its allies that PAS is the dominant party in Pakatan.

With the general election looming, PAS is already flexing its muscle now by staking claim of the country’s premiership.

They don’t give two hoots about Anwar being the supreme leader of Pakatan, what more the fate of the minority voice of non-Muslims when it comes to pushing through its Islamic principles and ideals.

In fact, the endorsement of the PAS Ulama Council is a strong signal that the party is adamant in taking the leading role in running the country.

It is a big slap on Pakatan Rakyat’s supremo leader Anwar Ibrahim who all along has been confident that he has the backing within its Opposition grouping in Pakatan to be the choice Prime Minister-in-waiting.

Furthermore Lim Kit Siang had just a few days ago declared at a Pakatan rally that the coalition partners were unanimous in Anwar being the PM candidate if they take over Putrajaya.

Anwar seemed shocked when asked how he felt. His reply was “Its okay. No problem. We will discuss in a nice matter,” he said with a distinctive worried expression written on his face as he hurriedly got into his car after launching a convention on national education at Universiti Selangor.

The atmosphere at the Muktamar clearly reverberates the political innuendoes and the possible outcome of a scenario where there will be jostling of the premiership.

Although there is no victory of the elections in sight yet, we are already seeing cracks developing within the Pakatan coalition.

Given the scenario on Anwar’s tainted image, especially with the morality issue hanging over his head, there is no way the PAS hardliners would ever pave the way for him.

Although he has vehemently denied that the man caught on video having sex with a China doll was not him because he did not have that big a stomach, it would not exonerate him.

We will see the clash of the titans very soon with the Talibans and the Anwarinas clashing for the coveted premiership trophy.

- Stop the Lies