PAS' true colours

TMI - PAS must know this: Malaysia is not a theocracy

warts & all is still better than a Mullah-Land

The above is an excellent editorial by The Malaysian Insider, not that PAS will love it. In it are a few interesting points that I will quote to share with you.

However, here in my post I'm not so much into commenting on PAS' age-old ambition to implement syariah laws as a complete replacement of Malaysian civil laws, nor will I be commenting on PAS' obsession with that part of syariah laws which deals specifically with some aspects of Islamic punishment, to wit, hudud, nor will I be commenting on our frequently validated perception of PAS clinging on to its 3-P doctrine, namely, to prohibit, persecute and punish.

It's something I've already stated often in my posts and which I am very much, deeply, concerned about. It's about what Kassim Ahmad had mentioned, much to the ulama's ire. It's the 'priesthood caste', and worse, their role in Malaysian democracy or rather their incongruity with democracy per se.

For a quick glimpse of what Kassim Ahmad had said, let's peruse the Malaysian Business Tribune where we would be able to read:

Speaking at an event organised by the Perdana Leadership Foundation, controversial scholar Kassim Ahmad said that Islam in Malaysia has been abused through a “priesthood caste” system.

“This priesthood caste did not exist at the time of the Prophet or the four caliphs. They only emerged about 300 years later by appointing themselves as interpreter of religion for Muslims,” he said.

“They (Muslims) view their religious leaders like gods and goddesses, that these leaders are seen to be protected from maksum (protected from sin) and must decide on everything about their lives.”

And gnam gnam, TMI editorial today says about PAS: 

... the most dangerous theme running through the party is that the cleric class cannot be criticised*. This is akin to putting some really flawed individuals on a pedestal reserved for the Almighty.

They can't be criticised by their own members nor can they be criticised by their allies. When did it come to this, that thin-skinned clerics run a party without question? Is this a political party or one of scholars who think they have a heavenly mandate?

* but I just love the job description, wakakaka

Incidentally for Christians, this was how a jealous priest Samuel brought down the people's choice of a good king, Saul, and the eventual and horrendous decimation (genocide) of not only the House of Saul but also of the Tribe of Benjamin by the House of Judah. But let's leave this for another post.

My sole aim in raising a brief reference to that particular biblical evil by one of the 'priesthood caste' was to remind Christians the problem of an unchallenged priesthood caste lies not only among the ulama but also in Christianity (and indeed in Buddhism, Hinduism, Chinese native religions, etc).

The TMI editorial continues:

We have been making too many excuses for PAS for too long. Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat was an aberration. The likes of Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and Datuk Harun Din are the norm and till today none of the PAS leadership have condemned the barbaric beheadings by Isis.

Instead, they collected money for one Malaysian fighter who died in the Middle East despite him having been sacked from PAS. And they now dub him a martyr.

I have only one specific disagreement with the above. Pak Haji Nik Aziz might be held in reverence by many, but I remember quite distinctly that in August 2010 the frail grandfatherly-looking Pak Haji showed his hard cruel face when he called for the death sentence for those who dumped their babies born out of wedlock, but without mentioning or considering the social, cultural and yes, religious circumstances which left those young and probably teenage mums no or very little other choice.

Consider the typical treatment by a secular state in a Western democracy. It would have been diametrically opposite to Pak Haji's cruel crushing capital punishment for those very much frightened young 'mums', already suffering from desertion, desperation, and deprivation of love, support and compassion.

They would be, and we should be emulating them in, placing emphasis on compassion, education, guidance and counselling rather than stoning people to death. And if society has been more understanding, and parents or families of the unfortunate young women provide support in accepting and caring for the unwanted babies, we would have less of ‘baby dumping’.

As if that was not cruel enough, Pak Haji had then shocked us further by demanding that illicit (unmarried) lovers be stoned to death.

It's bad enough to have capital punishment without that barbarous Middle-Eastern atrocity, which is best left to the Arabs and Israelis (recall in which country was this first said “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her”?).

In Malaysiakini's Karpal locks horns with Nik Aziz over baby dumping, the late Karpal Singh commented that Nik Aziz's proposal was far far too harsh, when more should instead be done to study the root cause of the baby dumping.

But in the end we have seen not only the cruelty, dictatorship and arrogance of the 'priesthood caste', but the treachery of PAS towards its Pakatan allies (as if  great religion like Islam condones treachery), the misogyny of its old men, and what I had posted much earlier and in many of my posts, as follows:

I had warned in my post PAS - from Progressive to Pythonic that once Malaysia has been established as an Islamic State, we can forget about Westminster democracy, where any of its pseudo-democracy and associated institutions under Islamic rule will automatically come under the control of a supreme, non-questionable, non-challengeable (a la the fatwas of the former PAS Kedah MB), and totally dictatorial religious Majlis ...

... and as mentioned by RPK in his post Friday prayers are NOT compulsory, said the Mufti, the process in an Islamic environment is not democratic and not questionable even by logic, reason, precedent or rules.

Additionally, the Malay nationalists in PAS (and that's who some of them really are), much as they believe in bangsa, could only scream agama because politically it has only the religious warrant, unlike UMNO which can switch flexibly (or unscrupulously) from bangsa to raja to agama to negara and even to 1Malaysia as its clarion call of the day without any qualms or embarrassment, wakakaka.

Yes, more than a few PAS members, despite their religious profession of the supra-nationalistic Islam, possess a similar belief in UMNO's Ketuanan Melayu because the ethnocentric Devil is still ensconced in the local political-social-cultural DNA.

To remove or defeat it, we will require sterling leadership and example like those exhibited by Brother Haris Ibrahim, Zaid Ibrahim, Saifuddin Abdullah and indeed Kassim Ahmad.

In the end, perhaps we should even thank Anwar Ibrahim for his Kajang Satay, for though it had failed abysmally and disastrously (as it rightly should, for it was never about Pakatan objectives but merely those of the PKR's inner coterie), the move has nonetheless brought out some beneficial side effects, that of revealing the true colours of PAS, for what the political party really is, a so-called 'partner' who has been unreliable, treacherous and arrogantly hostile .

Most important of all, watch out for those 'priestly caste'.