http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GA29Ae04.html
Jan 29, 2005 Malaysia's Islamists soften the line By Ioannis Gatsiounis KUALA LUMPUR - Shortly after Malaysia's hardline opposition Islamic party, Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), lost handily to the long-ruling conservative United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in last March's parliamentary elections, PAS officials conceded that the party's plans to implement an Islamic state in a country where Muslims make up but 60% of the population may have alienated voters, and some sort of revised approach would be paramount to the party's survival. Last week was the closest the party came to acting on this admittance, when PAS's youth chief Salahuddin Ayub announced that PAS will become more flexible in its vision of creating an Islamic state. The move is a gambit to find common ground with the two other main opposition parties, and leaders of at least one, the People's Justice Party (PKR), welcome the move. "We are in negotiations with PAS and almost at the stage of creating an agreement of various platforms," said PKR vice president Syed Husin Ali. Ali and PAS leaders told Asia Times Online that the parties will re-emphasize the issues that led the opposition to unexpected success in the 1999 elections - namely good governance, human rights, free speech, and fighting corruption and moral decay. More broadly, they plan to uphold the democratic-principled Malaysian constitution, which UMNO has overstepped over the years to introduce various forms of oppressive legislation. But what PAS and PKR, which together make up the opposition front Barisan Alternatif (BA), are viewing as the path to a bright future strikes others as an unimaginative dead-end reversion to a formula that has, in the six years since the last time BA used it, successfully been absorbed by UMNO. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's promise to clean up the corruption, cronyism, and abuse of power that flourished under his long-ruling predecessor Mahathir Mohamad, and his promotion of Islam Hadari (civilizational Islam), led UMNO to an overwhelming public mandate in last March's elections. By trying to restake its claim to progressive reform using the 1999 formula, the BA will have to depend on UMNO to falter. And while Abdullah has been slow to deliver on his promises - Malaysia's ranking in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index actually dropped two spots, to 39, in the year since Abdullah took office - the opposition hardly seems primed to capitalize on this fact. "A lot of political parties are talking about reinvention," said Khoo Kay Peng of the Sedar Institute, an independent think-tank. "But unfortunately, they come back to the same things" in the same way. PAS, for one, plans to change the tone of its vision, not the content. "The Islamic state is still our goal in terms of strategy and direction," said PAS central committee member Syed Azman. Rhetoric rather than substance is at the heart of the alteration, and that's unlikely to win the trust of most Malaysians. Talking with opposition leaders, one senses a touch of despondency setting in and, correspondingly, a creeping fatalism. In authoritarian Malaysia, it's not hard to see why. The opposition is all but denied space in the state-regulated media, which UMNO has milked to brand the opposition as a force of chaos and destruction. The UMNO elite also have routinely altered election regulations to suit their political agendas. And political parties must secure (and are often denied) permits to hold rallies. Historically, opposition parties have scarcely been able to make inroads in the political landscape in Malaysia. In the few instances in which they have, as in 1999 when PAS won the northern state of Terengganu, UMNO has been known to withhold state funds, making it difficult for the parties to deliver on their promises. Getting battered in March, in elections allegedly fraught with money politics and voter fraud, was hardly reason for optimism in the opposition camp. But despite these obstacles, said Khoo, "There's too much talk and calculating risk in the opposition, and not enough doing, and building the credibility to change perception." Added Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia professor of sociology and development Abdul Rahman Embong, "The situation doesn't seem to be moving into something more forward-looking, into what will rally people." Last September the opposition got what many thought was the jolt it needed. It was then that former deputy premier and PKR founder Anwar Ibrahim was acquitted after spending six years in prison on what many believe were charges invented by the UMNO elite to thwart his political ambitions. Anwar, barred from formally entering politics until 2008, has signed on as PKR adviser and is thought to be the party's heir apparent (assuming he doesn't rejoin UMNO). He has yet to espouse a concrete political agenda, however. The slivers he does serve up closely echo his 1999 rhetoric, despite Malaysia's new set of challenges in the time that's lapsed. This is hardly warming the rakyat (citizens) to the opposition. Anwar, for instance, according to PAS youth chief Ayub as reported by local media, supports adopting the 1999 formula. But what are the viable alternatives? Even the most percipient pundits here are short on answers. They don't suggest abandoning the core values of the 1999 manifesto; their point, though, is that if the opposition is to be successful it must be more savvy and aggressive in getting its message across - and that will require adopting more innovative thinking. Turning more to text messaging to circumvent the government's press machine, as the opposition had done prior to the March elections, is unlikely to lead very far. Nor is PKR's reshuffling of several key posts last weekend. "It's the same faces, same mindset," quipped one observer. PAS's Azman said more substantive changes are likely in the works; PAS's annual meeting is in June. However, he discounted the possibility of a major shakeup in the party leadership. And yet that's what some people think will be necessary for PAS to convince the public that human rights, equality and justice are as integral to the party's goals as an Islamic state. As long as PAS fails to do so, it will most likely hinder the ambitions of other parties that join it in an alliance; they will be guilty by association. The Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) recognizes this. It broke from the BA in 2001 when PAS started ratcheting up its Islamic-state rhetoric. It is now PAS's hope that by toning down its Islamic-state agenda it can sublate DAP back into the coalition. But DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng told Asia Times Online that's unlikely, even if PAS revises its stance. "They've said they would tone it down in the past, but that doesn't work," Lim said. "PAS must really leave that past behind." Lim said DAP will press forward with its democratic-reform agenda without being tempted into another marriage of convenience with PAS. But when asked how, specifically, the party planned to do this, he intimated that no bold strategies are on the near horizon. "We need to continue to stress our own ideals and principles," he said. Ioannis Gatsiounis, a New York native, has worked as a freelance foreign correspondent and previously co-hosted a weekly political/cultural radio call-in show in the US. He has been living in Malaysia since late 2002. (Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. Fund a student project in NYC/NC today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/5F6XtA/.WnJAA/E2hLAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. 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