PAS must find genuine leaders from within

With the GE13 contested and lost, it must now find the middle ground to be a truly Malaysian party

COMMENT

PAS performed poorly in the 13th general election. It was in the end the weakest link in the opposition Pakatan Rakyat.

While both DAP and PKR did well, winning 38 and 30 parliamentary seats respectively, PAS garnered only 21 seats out of the 73 it contested.

Why did PAS fail to wrestle seats from Umno in the GE13? A month after GE13, it’s a question that’s still being thrown about.

PAS locked horns with Umno in predominantly Malay constituencies and performed favourably only in Kelantan and Terengganu although it failed to retain the administration in Terengganu.

The party, while scoring in rural and less developed states, failed to make inroads in Malay urban and more progressive locations. In fact, PAS failed miserably to synchronise Muslim issues with its national agenda.

Knowing that since the 2008 general election Umno was on the decline, PAS should have conceived a political strategy that would have enabled it to grab more Malay support from Umno.

But instead the party continued to harp on religious matters such as the syariah laws. They failed to properly define the difference between Islam and its syariah laws, and Malay socio-economic and cultural heritage.

While the former is more specific and is confined to laws and punishment on Muslims, the latter is intertwined with national and economic issues and was very relevant in the run up to the GE13.

Instigating PAS

Hence it was wrong for PAS to use Islamic teachings as a political issue to gain popularity in the election.

Umno’s strategy was to simply instigate PAS’ brand of politics and provoke the latter’s supporters on the resistance posed by DAP on hudud and related issues.

To that end Umno used its lackey, MCA, to fan fear among the Chinese and non-Muslims about PAS’ alleged attempt to implement hudud.

Umno insiders claim that the whole strategy was to pit PAS against DAP and finish-off the opposition coalition and any ‘religion’ was seen as a vital tool.

In Umno’s war for supremacy, it was okay to even bandy the sacred term “Allah”.

They tried to turn the word ‘Allah” into a political and national issue by attacking its use in the Malay version of the Bible thus creating animosity between DAP’s predominantly Christian-Chinese members and PAS’ Muslim supporters and their respective communities at large.

PAS should have focused on engaging a comprehensive strategy to win over the Muslims/Malays and those in Umno constituencies.The strategy should have been religion on one hand and economic issues on the other.

By focusing on hudud as its main political platform, PAS allowed Umno to maintain its popularity by focusing on economic issues in its campaign.

The party was off the track when it failed to deal with national and economic issues which are related to the Muslims.

Finding genuine leaders

The party should have had its own political manifesto while backing Pakatan’s common policy framework. Had it, done so, it would have been able to speak of the true role of Islamic banking and finance (and not what is being practiced now).

It could have also stated its stand and plans for the conservation of the nation’s resources such as petroleum, forests and environment as well its plans on employment, student loans, housing, infrastructure development and others.

It could have spoken about drawing-up a engineering master plan to tackle the floods that hit the east coast of West Malaysia annually. These are issues that appeal to all strata of society.

While it is crucial that PAS be able to display good religious and leadership qualities emulating some of the traits of the great caliphs of the Islamic empire, it must realise that too much emphasis on hudud will drive away young people from supporting the party.

Perhaps, it is time that PAS looks within itself for genuine leaders with wisdom and moderation and who are knowledgeable on contemporary matters, economic issues, posses prudent management skills and a generous helping of common sense to take on an evolving Umno.