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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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PAS courts support beyond Islamic base
Confidence in its Malay support and the desire to form government
has the fundamentalist Parti Islam pursuing non-Malay votes in a
conciliatory way
By Brendan Pereira
MALAYSIA CORRESPONDENT
WHEN PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat rubbed shoulders with
Chinese pig farmers in Seremban recently, Malaysia's ruling party took
notice.
The significance of that ground-breaking act by the Muslim cleric was
clear.
One, how far down the road of pragmatism the Islamic fundamentalist
party had travelled in pursuit of the vital Chinese vote.
Two, how confident the party was of its foothold in Malay Malaysia that it
was now able to court people and embrace norms labelled as un-Islamic
only a few years ago.
To be sure, the charm campaign by Parti Islam began on Nov 30, 1999, a
day after the general election.
At the polls, a significant number of Malays voted for PAS, helping it to
keep Kelantan and snare Terengganu from Dr Mahathir's Barisan
Nasional. But a large swathe of Chinese and Indian votes went to the ruling
coalition, allowing it to retain its two-thirds majority in Parliament.
The only conclusion PAS elders could draw: To rule Malaysia, it needed
to move out of its comfort zone and become more attractive to
non-Malays.
>From then on, party leaders such as Nik Aziz and Datuk Fadzil Noor have
sat down to eight-course Chinese dinners, refrained from speaking about
the goal of forming a state based on Islamic laws and offered land to
Chinese farmers for pig rearing in Terengganu.
Often unsure of their own ethnic and religious constituency, party leaders
often performed the PAS shuffle - one step forward, two steps back.
Not anymore.
Fifteen months after the general election, PAS now believes that its
position with the Malays is unassailable.
Regular surveys done by the party in the Malay heartland show
consistently that six out of 10 Malays support PAS.
Now, PAS is confident and sure-footed. Such confidence has allowed
Kelantan Mentri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat to travel six hours by road from
Kota Baru to Seremban to meet Chinese pig farmers: He knew there
would be little political cost.
It is this same calculation that enables the party's politicians to meet groups
of Chinese professionals and to speak the language of equal opportunity
and democracy.
It also allows party president Datuk Fadzil Noor to plead for a stay of
execution for a Chinese school, ripe for the wrecker's ball.
Is this all-encompassing strategy working? Anecdotal evidence suggests
that Chinese support for the ruling coalition is wavering, due in part to the
government playing the Chinese-bogeyman card to win back disenchanted
Malays.
During a closed-door discussion between senior newspaper editors and
government leaders, an editor from a Chinese daily warned the authorities
against taking the PAS threat lightly.
He sensed a softening of sentiments among Chinese towards PAS. It
appears, so does PAS.
For many years, PAS has kept its ties with Hizbullah, the feared guerilla
group in Lebanon, quiet for fear of alienating moderate Muslims and
non-Muslims.
But the latest issue of Harakah, the party newspaper, shows Datuk Fadzil
Noor having a discussion with Sayed Hassan Nasrullah, the
secretary-general of the armed group, in Beirut.
______________________________________________________________
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