PAS’ bubbling pot won’t boil over

Hadi, recognising his party's continued need for PR, has ensured that the lid stays closed.

COMMENT

In Malaysian party politics it is usual to see issues of importance being weighed up by a party’s members before the matter is openly discussed in a more formal setting. It helps members get better acquainted with the permutations and possibilities from any decisions to be taken and their related benefits and consequences.

The call by Haron Din, PAS’ Deputy Mursyidul Am, for a review of the party’s political cooperation with PKR and DAP should serve as a warning to members to come equipped to debate this smouldering issue, which has become contentious in recent months because of PKR’s attempts to remove Khalid Ibrahim from the Selangor Menteri Besar’s position and PAS’ vacillating stance over the selection of candidates to replace him.

The arguments as to who should succeed Khalid as MB has since become trite because of the Sultan’s exercise of his executive discretion. However, the inter-party squabbling amongst the PR allies has strained ties so considerably that it threatens to rend PAS apart internally.

We need to dispel any illusion or doubt that PAS intends anything other than to fulfil its ambition to set up an Islamic theocracy in Kelantan and then follow through on this remodelling to cover Terengganu and other states if political momentum allows.

There would be no need to dabble in politics if this were not the case. Time and time again, party president Abdul Hadi Awang has reiterated that this ambition has never been jettisoned although impatient and disappointed supporters may say otherwise. This is the genetic make-up and core founding principle of the party and what has made it relevant to the East Coast Malay voters to this day.

Getting the two-thirds support of Parliament to amend the Federal Constitution is still the only way to implement the syariah and hudud enactments already carried by the Kelantan state legislature in 1993 and that of Terengganu in 2003.

With Hadi’s unambiguous statement calling for continued cooperation with PR and the categorical rejection of any union with Umno, he is merely setting the tone for further discourse on the matter while retaining the status quo with all its upsets and betrayals.

Hadi the consummate survivor has read all the signals right and recognises PAS’ continued need for PR for it to achieve its ultimate goal of syariah and hudud implementation in Kelantan and Terengganu. He is probably also aware that West Coast states may not be so accommodative of a syariah system of administration so it would better to consolidate the two birds in the pocket, i.e. Kelantan and Terengganu.

In any case, Nik Abdul Aziz Mat has not spoken yet and the Syurah Council will not go against him if it stays true to its conservative leanings. Nik Aziz has shown that he is inclined to continue the relationship with Pakatan Rakyat despite the messy trials and tribulations of the coalition.

In effect Hadi, with his statements, has jumped onto the lid of the bubbling pot of disgruntled PAS members to stop it from boiling over.