Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS –Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) has started preparing for the next 16th General Election as early as 2024, even though the national polls won’t be due till February 2028. That’s because Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim could call for a snap election next year (2026). And there’s only one way to win the Iron Throne – winning the heart of the critical non-Muslim votes.
But there’s one huge problem – the non-Malay-Muslims are avoiding the religious extremist party with a 10-foot pole. PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and his advisers knew this, thus spreading speculations that the party supremo could be stepping down. But at the same time, the radical Islamist party is blaming outsiders of fabricating the rumours as it fears any talks of Hadi retiring could destabilize the party.
Mr Hadi has no plan to quit, mind you. In fact, he will continue to lead PAS till his last breath – largely because he is incredibly power-hungry, and partly because there isn’t any credible successor. If he really wanted to hand over his presidency to his deputy or a successor, he would have done it ages ago. Yet, even after being admitted to IJN (National Heart Institute) for treatment dozens of times, he stubbornly clings to power.
Compared to former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and former Opposition Supremo Lim Kit Siang, both of whom had retired from their respective parties, Hadi Awang’s grip on power and dictatorship is unmatchable. It’s not a secret that the 77-year-old’s dream is to become the Prime Minister of Malaysia before he kicks the bucket, the same way Anwar Ibrahim had achieved it.
PAS is not merely a Malay conservative party, but also a Muslim extremist party riding on Islam. But its biggest victory in history – sweeping 43 parliamentary seats in predominantly Malay-Muslim majority constituencies in the November 2022 General Election – appears to be its peak as the ethnic’s support for PAS has saturated. With about 80% Malay-Muslims support, it has reached its climax.
PAS’ 43 MPs make it the country’s largest party. Yet, hilariously, this is the second time (the first was UMNO in 2018 when it won 53 seats) in history that the largest party in Malaysia isn’t the ruling government, but was reduced to the opposition. To win federal power, a party or alliance of parties must secure at least 112 of the 222 seats in Parliament. However, in the 2022 election, PAS and its main ally Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia won 74 seats.
That’s 38 seats short of forming a simple-majority government. PAS paid the price for its past treachery, betrayal and backstabbing when the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) – PAS’ former ally in the now-defunct Muafakat Nasional coalition – decided to form a Unity Government with Anwar-led Pakatan Harapan coalition instead. PAS also paid the price for excessive attacks on non-Muslims.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government has 147 – from his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, and multiple coalitions from Sarawak and Sabah. Essentially, even though Opposition Perikatan Nasional (PAS and Bersatu) had captured a jaw-dropping 80% Malay vote, they were insufficient to grab power in a multi-racial and multi-religious country.
In a six-state polls in August 2023, PAS only retained control of Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah in legislative assembly, bringing the number of states Perikatan Nasional (PN) controls to four, including the smallest state Perlis. Realizing it needs to win over ethnic Chinese and Indians, who make up about a third of the population, forked-tongue Hadi changed his tune.
“PAS must win over non-Muslims in 16th General Election. In fact, we will continue to preserve freedom of religion and ensure justice, as enshrined under the Federal Constitution” – said its president Abdul Hadi Awang on Oct 2024, an admission that his strategy of racist bigotry and religious extremism can only go so far. This week, PAS has again expressed its wishful thinking.
This time, PAS vice-president Amar Abdullah fantasized how non-Malay voters disgruntled with the Anwar government could help the Opposition wins the next election. But while the Islamist party understood it has to target non-Malay voters, who have become increasingly critical of the Anwar government, PAS appears to be clueless on how to attract the Chinese and Indians vote bank.
Worse, even though PAS knew that Anwar looks strong because the opposition is weak, and not because due to the 10th Prime Minister’s strong leadership and competency, the top leadership of Perikatan Nasional (PN) does not know how to capitalize on the situation. PN’s biggest weakness is that none of its leaders know how to debate on economy and bread and butter issues – except babbling about racial, religious and sex.
Make no mistake – even if the non-Malays dislike Anwar administration, they dislike PAS and Bersatu even more. Just because PH supporters have started criticizing PM Anwar, that does not mean they won’t vote for Pakatan Harapan during the election. Between PN and PH, the Chinese and Indians know the lesser of two evils. Even if they hate Anwar, they would rather stay at home than vote for PAS.
Whether Pakatan Harapan will lose some seats if the non-Malay voters unhappy with Anwar choose not to vote at all will depend on the new configuration, strategy or type of cooperation with UMNO in the 16th General Election. One thing is for sure – without the Chinese or Indians, Perikatan Nasional cannot win enough seats to form a government on its own.
With PAS already banning lottery draws and restricting alcohol sales in the four northern states that it controls, there’s no way in hell that the Chinese will give any vote for the Islamist party or any of its partners. Non-Muslims in the rest of Malaysia, including Borneo Sabah and Sarawak, are concerned that their remaining rights may be taken away should PAS extremists come to power.
PAS’ favourite game of calling non-Muslims “kafir” (infidels), often seen as an insult and racist, has also engendered distrust towards the radical Islamist party. It will be hard for PAS to win over the non-Malay votes because people like Hadi Awang has overplayed his hand previously – arrogantly attacking the non-Muslims and interfering in their internal affairs.
Calling the Chinese kafir is no different than calling the Indians “pariah”. Instead of stopping the insults, PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man tried to justify – only to make it worse – when he said regardless whether non-Muslims are hostile to Muslims, have no problems living among Muslims, or have made a pact with Muslims to keep the peace, they are “all kafir”.
Already living like a second-class citizen in their own country, it’s not hard to understand why the non-Malays believe the PAS agenda is to form an “Islamic state” like the Taliban in Afghanistan. Even if PAS denies it, which it hasn’t, the restrictions it imposed on the “kafir Chinese and Indians” in the four states it rules are clear signs of its ultimate agenda of “Islamization”.
It was already bad that PAS fails to govern their four states properly, especially in managing the economy. It becomes worse when non-Muslims were told what they can or cannot wear, and forced them to close business or risk being accused of disrespecting Islam and Malay-Muslims. The non-Muslims see PAS leaders as not only extremely hateful of Chinese and Indians, but also destroying their rice bowl.
The express way for PAS to gain Chinese and Indians votes is to make a U-turn and work with Democratic Action Party (DAP), which has a market share of 95% of Chinese votes. But after demonizing DAP for years, it would be more possible to see pigs fly. Pretending that Hadi could soon retire will not make PAS any less radical in the lens of the non-Muslims.
Snake oil salesman Hadi should not retire. While he is the reason PAS will remain a status quo party in the Malay belt, he is also the reason why PAS will remain as opposition – unless Anwar screws up royally. Pakatan Harapan just needs to outlive the PAS president, before the Islamist party is weakened by half-past-six successors like Tuan Ibrahim.
Source : Finance Twitter
The Coverage Malaysia
