The Malaysian Insight

PAS must be the main driver of any future pact with its nemesis-turned-ally Umno, said the Islamist party’s young leaders.

This is among the conditions PAS Youth grassroots leaders said must be set as the Islamist party meets to debate a future opposition coalition with Umno.

Umno, which promotes a Malay national ideology, must also accept Islamist policies, such as the proposal to enhance punishments for state-level shariah offences.

Although there were decades of bad blood between members of the two parties, PAS activists interviewed with The Malaysian Insight said the rifts are gradually healing.

“As humans, we will still feel suspicious of Umno,” said Wangsa Maju Pas Youth chief Abdul Hadi Ghazali.

“But PAS members will follow whatever the leadership decides because we may see things at the grassroots level but they have a helicopter’s view,” said Hadi at the sidelines of the Pas Youth assembly in Kuantan.

PAS’ 62nd annual general assembly is expected to see the party debate the terms and conditions for a formal pact between the party and Umno, both of which have been working together on an ad hoc basis since GE14.

PAS, Umno, and their civil society allies, have been loosely working together again over the past year in the last seven by-elections.

PAS leaders, however, have said the cooperation was on a case-by-case basis.

So far, there is no unified pact of opposition parties in the way Pakatan Harapan and its predecessor, Pakatan Rakyat, were to Barisan Nasional when the latter was in power.

This assembly will serve as a stepping stone to creating the coalition and the leadership hopes that the theme of “Demi Islam” (“in the name of Islam”) will convince members still sceptical about such a pact.

But to achieve that, the leadership must set firm conditions and provide cogent arguments based on religious edicts said PAS youth central committee member Izwan Abdul Halim.

PAS should also be the backbone behind such a pact to ensure that its Islamic principles are implemented, said Izwan.

“The thing with Umno is that its members believe in the Malay struggle but PAS can’t accept an ideology based on race,” said Izwan from the party’s Sik division.

“We’re not going to force Umno members to come to our programmes but at least we need to familiarise them with our struggle,” said Izwan.

Another reason for putting PAS in charge, said PAS Youth delegate Muhammad Farhan Md Zin, is the negative public perception among the public towards Umno and the coalition it leads, BN.

“We should have the main role to bring the pact forward as compared to BN as the public perception to them is negative,” Farhan of the party’s Cheras division.

“It will be a burden to us if they take the lead because we have to shoulder the responsibility of repairing their image. We should take the lead because we don’t have a negative image.”

Selangor Pas Youth delegate Shazif Othman wants the party’s Islamist ideology to be prominent in such a pact and this includes accepting its initiative to amend the Shariah Court Act 1965.

The move, called RUU355 after the name of its parliamentary bill, is to enhance punishments for shariah offences, such as consuming alcohol and close proximity.

“It’s not just RUR355, but a whole slate of Islamic policies that are progressive,” said Shazif, of Subang PAS youth.

Umno’s acceptance of the Islamist struggle would dilute the suspicions felt by PAS members towards the Malay nationalist party, he said. – June 20, 2019.