PAS’ political grandstanding

 

When the rights of non-Malays and non-Muslims are trampled on, public confidence in the government in policing and enforcing law and order is eroded.

It is one thing for religious affairs minister Idris Ahmad to say that no one is preventing non-Malays from drinking alcohol, but it is ridiculous to say that they cannot do so during Oktoberfest.

With GE15 around the corner, the race to get the Malay vote gets more intense. Beer, or to be more exact, Oktoberfest, has been added to the list of taboos by PAS and conservative Malays.

Perhaps, the reason Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, the late spiritual leader of PAS, was much loved by both Muslims and non-Muslims was that he stood for a fairer, freer and more inclusive Malaysia. With his passing, an enormous void had been left in PAS.

Sadly, the nation is now at the mercy of clerics who lack vision, who fail to inspire, and who threaten the fabric of our multiracial and multifaith Malaysia.

Several clerics sit in the PAS central committee. They fashion themselves as politicians, but they sound more ridiculous by the day. Flash floods are seen as God’s punishment, or a test for humans. Women who dress conservatively will be fast-tracked to heaven. A corrupt Malay/Muslim may be preferable to a principled, honest non-Malay/Muslim. Today, the claim is that beer drinkers pose a threat to the country.

PAS central committee member Nasrudin Hassan wants the federal and state governments to ban Oktoberfest. In a statement on Facebook, he says that Oktoberfest “affects the sensitivities of Muslims in Malaysia”. He does not deny the rights of non-Muslims who are allowed to consume alcohol, but says that “in a country that professes Islam as its national religion, that right should be done privately and neither promoted nor feted any further”.

If PAS condemns a festival which is public and which promotes beer drinking, how long will it be before festivals such as Gawai in Sarawak and Kaamatan in Sabah are deemed to be incompatible with the religion and culture of the majority of Malaysians? During the harvest festival, copious amounts of tuak are consumed.

For decades, Gawai had never been seen as a threat to the position of Islam but in 2022, and with GE15 around the corner, the issue of alcohol consumption is now one of PAS’ top priorities.

Instead of focusing on alcohol, it would be good if PAS can issue a statement on how families affected by the cost of living crisis can be helped to weather the storm. Forget the beer drinkers, all they want is to have a good time savouring the latest popular brew.

PAS does not seem to realise that when the party uses religion to claim that Islam is under threat, as in the Oktoberfest claim, the rakyat knows that its leaders have run out of ideas to help them.

The party should stop its political point-scoring and return to the drawing board – and think of ways and means of helping the rakyat in these difficult times. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.