MAY 11 — The May Day rally to protest GST implementation next year was in all counts a huge success. Even the authorities who were charged with monitoring the event praised — something very unusual and has never happened in the history of the nation — the organisers and the people who attended it. Hence appreciation for the smooth, peaceful demonstration must surely go to the organiser of the rally, Mohamad Sabu and especially too to the Unit Amal of PAS.
In fact, Unit Amal’s credentials have always gotten a boost each time a gathering or rally is held. In all the Bersih events for instance, social media comments were all praise for the unit and this has gone a long way in promoting PAS not just as an Islamic party concerned about Malay-Muslim matters but more importantly as a party committed to the struggle for a new Malaysia free from the corruption, excesses and misgovernance of the BN regime. This time around too there has been all round applause as evidenced in comments like:”It was well organised, well synchronised and well coordinated. The police were there just to show their presence. PAS’ Unit Amal was without question superb and enforced the peace”. Others felt that PAS and its partners in Pakatan Rakyat were superb — “it is extraordinary that PAS under the able leadership of Mohamad Sabu with the support of NGOs and Pakatan coalition partners were able to make this anti-GST a big success” said another commentator .
Thus against the backdrop of the hudud issue, we must not lose sight of the bigger picture, that is, to focus on the struggle to remove the corrupt Umno-BN regime and replace it with a Pakatan Rakyat one. While discussions go on between the leaders of Pakatan to resolve the hudud issue, members from all Pakatan parties must not issue half-baked comments or statements that would only provide fuel to Umno-BN.
It is quite disheartening to hear that there are some short-sighted people who make equally short-sighted statements like “whatever happens, even if Pakatan breaks up, we will proceed…” and such other like-sounding stuff. For PAS middle level leaders and members to blast away in this manner is nothing short of sheer arrogance.
If the far-sighted move by our former president, the late Ustaz Fadzil Noor to build bridges with non-Muslims as a strategy to move the Opposition closer towards victory by capturing Putrajaya is to see fruition then we need like-minded leaders today who will continue his vision and fulfil his wishes by being mature politicians who will not utter anything that would damage Pakatan cohesion. We would just say that such leaders or members are half-baked individuals who only see through a narrow prism and cannot see the bigger picture as envisioned by Ustaz Fadzil.
The current “friendliness” that Umno is obviously trying to show towards PAS is simply part of its grand plan to achieve its objectives. One is to see the demise of Pakatan which if left alone will only get stronger by the day because the younger generation simply do not want Umno and BN in power. Once Pakatan is broken up, Umno strategists will rub their hands in glee because the so-called Malay traditional electorate that was supposed to switch to PAS would continue to remain with Umno.
Secondly, PAS will return to the politics of yesteryears and remain a party just for the limited Malay-Muslim constituency and one can imagine where this will lead us to. We can imagine the maximum number of seats that we may win at that.
It is important to note that if we choose to participate in electoral politics in a country like ours we must play by the rules of the game. For the information of our members we only have to look at the approach taken by other Islamic movements elsewhere like in Tunisia for instance. Imagine even in an overwhelming majority Muslim state like Egypt and even with the Ikhwan opting for a very open, moderate stance, president Morsi was removed, what more in a country like ours?
If we want to bypass these rules then we must decide to discard participation in electoral politics. It just simply does not work any other way. Our mission will remain but we must remember to strategize well. — harakahdaily.net
* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.
