The shaky Pakatan alliance

PAS and PKR/DAP are enemies fighting a common enemy, Umno. The true nature of the relationship will emerge if they take over Putrajaya.

COMMENT

When it was revealed that PAS member Mohd Lotfi Ariffin had gone to Syria to fight for IS (Islamic State), he was immediately sacked from the party because, according to PAS, the party does not support terrorism.

But now that Lotfi has been killed in action, some senior PAS leaders—Mahfuz Omar and Nik Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz, in particular—are singing his praises.

So it looks like while the party does not officially endorse Lotfi’s action, it does in a way support him. It regards him as a true jihadist worthy of praise.

PAS is a member of Pakatan Rakyat but this does not mean DAP and PKR agree with PAS in matters involving its aspiration to set up an Islamic state. Indeed PKR and DAP have made clear their opposition not only to the setting up of an Islamic state but also the imposition of hudud laws.

Pakatan Rakyat is an awkward alliance. DAP and PKR may agree with some of the ideals of the Islamic party, but on the doctrinal level, they are poles apart.

PAS has reiterated that it has not abandoned its quest to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state or to introduce Islamic laws in Malaysia. DAP and PKR do not support PAS on this. And DAP and PKR will go all out to ensure that PAS does not succeed in its aspirations.

So it looks like the greatest obstacle to PAS are DAP and PKR. And yet PAS regards DAP and PKR as comrades and Umno as the adversary. Do they not say that politics make strange bedfellows?

PAS sees itself as the alternative to Umno; so it needs to work with DAP and PKR to dislodge Umno. If PAS works with Umno, it will never be able to dislodge the party but will just be playing second fiddle to the largest political party in Malaysia.

PAS does not regard DAP and PKR as friends. It does, however, regard Umno as the enemy. And DAP and PKR are also Umno’s enemies.

So the logical thing would be to work with Umno’s enemies to try to dislodge the largest political party in Malaysia and once that happens PAS can take over Umno’s place as the new largest political party in the country.

Hence PAS is just working with the enemies of the Islamic state and Islamic laws to fight a bigger enemy.

This is what the British did from 1941 to 1945 when they fought against the Japanese in Malaya during WWII. They worked with the CPM to fight a common enemy even though they knew that post-war Malaya was going to see problems with the communists. And once the Japanese had been defeated, the British and CPM fought each other, as they had predicted they would.

The many rival Taliban groups in Afghanistan did the same thing. They united to fight the Russians and once the Russians had been defeated they fought each other and the civil war killed more Afghans than the Russians did.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, until the bigger enemy has been defeated. Then the enemy of my enemy becomes my enemy as well. And this is the relationship between PAS, DAP and PKR.

As long as Pakatan Rakyat remains the opposition, everything will be well and fine. Only when or if Pakatan Rakyat takes over the Federal Government will the true relationship between PAS, DAP and PKR reveal itself.

Roslan Bistamam is an FMT columnist