'Where has all the inclusiveness gone?'

Amanah vice president Mujahid Yusof Rawa, initiator of the PAS campaign of outreach to non-Muslims and sometime head of its multiracial PAS Supporters Club, was tempted to recall the haunting lyrics of the anti-war anthem, "Where have all the flowers gone?"

Speaking to Malaysiakini on the latest bloviations of Abdul Hadi Awang, the president of Mujahid's former party, who has purportedly called for an all-Muslim cabinet to govern Malaysia, Mujahid said: “Hadi is taking the party in directions (past presidents) Fadzil Noor and Nik Aziz would fear to tread.”

The call for an all-Muslim cabinet is Hadi's most radical departure from the initiatives painstakingly launched by ex-party heavyweights Fadzil Noor and Nik Aziz Nik Mat at the time, both jointly and after Fadzil died in 2002, singlehandedly sustained by Nik Aziz (photo), until he too died in 2015.

In Hadi's scheme of Islamic governance, outlined in an article in last week's edition of party organ Harakah Daily, non-Muslims could only be subalterns.

“Where has all the inclusiveness gone?” queried Mujahid, in remarks decrying Hadi's increasingly bizarre departure from the outreach programmes of Fadzil that were backed by party spiritual mentor Nik Aziz.

“From both those leaders, PAS evolved that simple but powerful slogan 'PAS for all',” asserted Mujahid, whose father Yusof Rawa was the party's first spiritual leader and its president from 1983 to 1989.

Mujahid said the slogan was a takeoff from an Islamic ideal: that the religion is a blessing to humankind, Rahmatan lil Alamin, as the Arabic rendition has it.

“It was a powerful slogan – simple, inclusive and compelling,” said Mujahid, who is MP for Parit Buntar, the semi-rural seat in northern Perak he won in 2008 and 2013 on a PAS ticket.

He said the slogan resonated with the universalist ideals of Islam which speak of a common humanity among all peoples.

“The slogan helped break PAS out of its northeastern strongholds and become a national - more than a provincial - party,” claimed Mujahid.

He said now PAS is contracting its scope of influence, from its formerly nationwide appeal to exclusively Muslim redoubts - a contraction he said would appal Fadzil and Nik Aziz.

Amnesia over 'PAS for all' slogan

He said this curtailment of PAS' outreach is accompanied by what seems to be amnesia about its once winning slogan: "PAS for all."

“According to Hadi, now PAS is interested to establish an Islamic governance that is exclusively run by Muslims and for them, with non-Muslims in, at the most, subservient roles,” said Mujahid.

“Where has all the inclusiveness gone?” asked Mujahid.

“Something that was once grand and liberating has contracted to become exclusive, narrow and divisive,” he lamented.

He said he prayed and hoped that PAS' loss would redound to Amanah's gain.

Amanah was formed in September 2015 when the professionals of PAS left, after being routed in party polls in June the same year.

The professionals take their ideological cues from Fadzil and Nik Aziz.- Mkini