Hadi is laughing all the way to Putrajaya

 

"PAS would like to thank everyone, especially the young voters, for putting their trust in us and PN.”

– Abdul Hadi Awang

Even with a hundred seats still uncalled, Abdul Hadi Awang, PAS’ grand poobah, was in a jubilant mood.

Perikatan Nasional (PN) had made enough gains to make the fight between Pakatan Harapan and Umno/BN the sideshow and if you were a rational voter, you would see that PN was slowly shaping up to be a contender with PAS forming the backbone of the coalition.

I have always warned that PAS and Hadi are the existential threat facing this country. I also warned that we should not take for granted that the youth vote is progressive.

PAS grassroots operators relayed to me that they welcomed the lowering of the voting age but more importantly, automatic registration.

What we are dealing with here is the long game. The fruits of the labour of the vast religious bureaucracy and how it has shaped a generation of young people that race and religion, are the sole determinant for political power.

This is why, even when Harapan was briefly in power, I was vehemently opposed to the enabling of the religious industrial complex because, ultimately, it served the ethnocentric narrative of this country which the mainstream political establishment (which includes the opposition) embraced because the Malay political establishment did not want to spook the Malays.

While urban polity has been in their echo chambers, the religious industrial complex has defined “Malay” culture and preoccupations from entertainment to commerce and has normalised, especially among the young people, ideas that are anathema to secular democratic norms.

They have done this not only through social media but also through mainstream media organs, the alternative press by "useful idiots" (a cold war term) and of course a compliant opposition, fearful of spooking the Malays.

The idea that PAS was a joke in the recently concluded election was a dangerous idea that fed into the victim ideology of PAS – and PN for that matter – and proved to be disastrous for Harapan.

PAS’ propaganda is far more sophisticated than Umno’s and Harapan’s and displays a keen understanding of how Malay society works.

If anything, PAS has evolved - not ideologically - when it comes to courting the Malay vote, having learnt much from its partners since becoming mainstream.

PAS grassroots activists helpfully showed me the kind of propaganda that PAS put out, which was impressive in its sophistication.

Most of it was done by instant messaging and it was quite brutal in the way it clearly defined the PAS and PN struggle. This was no waffling narrative.

PN the logical choice

Everyone talked about the youth vote going to the progressive forces in this country, but in recent elections, they have proven unreliable or going towards parties like Bersatu and by extension PN, rather than being the manna from heaven for Harapan.

Some in the PAS intelligentsia told me that what PN offers is a tabula rasa from the corruption of Umno.

What they “promoted” is a rejection of a corrupt Umno and a Chinese insurgency through Anwar Ibrahim.

So if you do not like Umno and you are afraid of the DAP, then the logical choice is PN, which not only has the experience of running the country during a pandemic but whose leader Muhyiddin Yassin’s olive branch was rejected by an arrogant non-Malay dominated coalition.

By pushing this narrative that it does not need to win elections - as Hadi has said numerous times - or that it only needs God to win elections, this plays well with a growing number of disenfranchised within the Malay community and absolves PAS if they lose.

Furthermore, Bersatu’s position as an alternative to Umno’s corruption reinforces ideas among the young people that a party that has experience is a safe bet, especially during these trying times of geopolitical uncertainties.

PAS and PN are now free to define their version of moderation without having to rely on non-Muslim input to craft a narrative which resonates with their ever-growing base. And, depending on who they hook up with, they will make the necessary concession understanding that a weakened Umno does not pose a threat and Harapan will be cowed because they assumed that they had this election in the bag.

The PAS president understands that he will be vilified by non-Malay political operatives, but he also knows that when it comes to actual policymaking, his rhetoric and that of his base have a profound impact, even if in terms of representation, PAS was negligible, especially in the federal government.

How this has changed? All the hard work, the normalisation of religious narratives and the enabling of the religious industrial complex have created a political terrain in which PAS thrived.

Openly disagreeing with the Selangor sultan and calling for state theocratic rebellion against the sultan, when it came to the Bon Odori festival, was a way of flexing PAS' muscles.

The fact that there has been no sanction from the royal institution is indicative of the growing power of this theocratic party.

With GPS claiming that it will form a coalition with PN, BN and GRS, the terrain is shifting in PAS' favour even more. It remains to be seen if all parties agree to this or whether there are some surprises in store.

Folks should not think that all this is doom and gloom because what this does is merely elevate the Borneo bloc to the next stage of an eventual confrontation with interlopers from the peninsula.

It's just that the Malay uber alles bloc does not see it now. But they will. They will.

Sooner, rather than later, Hadi will get his Islamic state. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.