MAY 8 — Let’s get down to it. Single issue advocacy is not new, but it is potent. A little organisation goes a long way in achieving legislative and policy goals using democratic means.

In the aftermath of GE13, almost a quarter of a million Malaysians wrote in to the White House to complain about the electoral process in our country. President Barack Obama’s project “We the people” responded that all democratic developments involving Malaysia were being keenly observed.

I’m not sure whether a bland statement in response to that many people petitioning in a week is commensurate, but it was definitely underwhelming.

However despite the outcome, it does along with other precedents prove that more Malaysians are willing to act on their political rights, whether right or wrong using the democratic means available to them. And in the Internet lies the greatest social equaliser since the printing press.

And it is time to do something about the hudud proposal PAS wants to play out. The ideas of state autonomy, limited legislation, central beliefs actualised by a system and reversibility have been bandied about.

This column is not going to justify or rebut hudud. There is no intention to disrespect or claim expert knowledge of what it may be, can be, has been and will be in the Malaysian context if legislative permission is won.

Here, I want to tell what those committed to oppose hudud legislation in Malaysia, how to go about it.

Mindful please, that those opposed to hudud in Malaysia are not limited to Non-Muslims.

The how

A national paper suggested that if all Umno MPs cross the aisle and support the PAS proposal, then all that’s needed is another four lawmakers in Parliament to join them and pass the motion. While this may appear staggeringly real on the face of it, for all that is necessary is a quartet of Muslim MPs from either PKR or Sarawak’s Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) to complete a majority, it is a longs way off.

It is overly simplistic to put it down to arithmetic and conclude that Muslims are Muslims and therefore are compelled to support all things deemed Muslim. To assume that if Umno acquiesces then there is no stopping the proposal.

If demographics only prevailed then Tunisia and Indonesia would have joined the bandwagon, and not just left it to the absolute monarchy of Brunei to lead the march presently. It is instructive that only a non-democracy managed it even after a slew of regime changes in North Africa.

While the pressure should continue on the prime minister, the real pressure should build on lawmakers, and worked along a three prong:

1.       Force the liberals out from their shells, and speak

2.       Lean on the vulnerable seats and therefore MPs

3.       Heighten state dynamics

Liberty bell tolls for them again

The rising star of Umno politics, Khairy Jamaluddin, will have to live with the liberal tag irrespective if he scales up and rests on the power perch one day.

Incidentally, some of his supporters were tweeting him last night over the minor decision by Cabinet to remove the race field in government forms where they do not have a material effect.

A non-issue in a sane world, but Umno Youth cadres drip with a domination zeitgeist. Letting someone sign up for a library card at the National Library without stating race is the end of the world as they know it.

They, however, are misguided in believing Khairy can be upset by this development. He’s no Syed Jaafar Albar.

He is a progressive trying to fit with the majority in order to provide leadership without displeasing core supporters. Which is why he has steered clear of the hudud issue, it is lose-lose-lose for him if he utters an opinion.

He is not alone there. Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz, Pulai MP Nur Jazlan Mohamed and even veteran Tengku Razaleigh are cut from different cloth to their unapologetically dogmatic colleague Jamil Khir Baharom, the minister in charge of Islamic affairs at the Prime Minister’s Department.

If buttons have to be pushed, push their buttons. The more times they comment on hudud the likelier they will let slip their own personal convictions over the matter, which may be less than flattering for the PAS folks.

They may not be a crowd, but without exception they are all influential in Umno, and when they are seen to be hesitant, the prime minister may be forced to reconsider very quickly.

The vulnerable ones

While Umno MPs in Jeli or Kemaman can only win more than lose by going aggressive on religion, there are 30-40 Umno seats out of the 88 belonging to Umno are vulnerable.

A concerted approach to the MPs, through writing to them and assuring them if the Bill is passed they would be losing the writer’s, his friends’ and family’s votes will get their attention.

Johari Abdul Ghani would be anxious about his Titiwangsa constituency. Having wrested the traditional Umno seat from a single term of PAS with only 866 votes would have him worried.

So too would his friend Ahmad Fauzi Zahari in adjacent Setiawangsa, where only 1,390 votes gave him his first term in Parliament. Another first timer, Irmohizan Ibrahim won by 460 votes. But more pertinent he edged PAS’ Dzulkefly Ahmad. Irmohizan may encroach on Dzulkefly’s moderate image by being clearer on hudud.

PAS candidates have lived-off non-traditional votes in the last two elections, and if Umno candidates can firm up on hudud, they entice these newer PAS voters away from the party.

Still, Umno MPs may not come to this realisation, especially first-time MPs in vulnerable seats who are at the mercy of the party president.  They need to be reminded that they are responsible for their own political careers and they only matter because they hold office. The PM may want to play a Convoluted mind game with hudud in order to force a break-up of Pakatan Rakyat, but individual MPs are in a position where they cannot ignore voters, if they write to them.

Even in the old fortress state of Johor it is a factor. Normala Abdul Samad slipped in by a 935 majority only in Pasir Gudang. The vulnerable ones are all over the peninsula and they need to know their hudud position may cost them their careers.

Nervous Umno MPs, who are often division chiefs, tend to give sitting prime ministers the twitch.

States dance differently

The 88 Umno MPs include 14 Muslim legislators in Sabah. Sabah is under Umno today, but that should not be seen as a carte blanche acceptance of a peninsula- based party calling the shots over there. Umno MPs there are well warned not to ignore the state population not wanting more politicisation of religion. Hudud is a massive wedge for Sabahan who want their multiculturalism to continue.

By agreeing to hudud, even if only in Kelantan, renders these MPs as persons willing to risk Sabah to please Kuala Lumpur bosses.

Local Sabahan “NO to hudud” activists should take it upon themselves to campaign on these MPs.

It is unnecessary to speak about the Sarawakian dimension. There are nine Muslim PBB MPs, but they are cognisant a vote for hudud is giving to future changes to Sarawak which is broadly unacceptable. It’ll be branded as another effort to Malayanise the state.

So to your keyboards then

There is no reason to believe that a hudud aye vote is just a formality. But if those weaker parts of the chain are not being challenged so to secure the non-passage of the motion, then the hudud movement can snowball.

It is time for smart plays. Don’t let the Umno leaders willing to back hudud to freely speak on behalf of their other party mates. While Umno senior leaders are hoping this hudud phase will unhinge the current PAS-DAP love-fest, those who do not want hudud have to alienate the advocates.

When all the possibles are worked, the probable turns out even sooner than expected.

*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.