pas ready to be umno's equal

By Joan Lau

Analysts pored over PAS president Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang’s speech this morning looking for clues about the direction the party will be taking in the next few months. Many came away disappointed that he did not make more references to his opposition coalition (Pakatan Rakyat) partners, while others were wary that he said the Islamist party would not close any doors to talks with other parties.

The big question hanging over the whole proceeding is this: Is PAS ready to step up as Umno’s equal or a national party? The answer is a firm yes.

In the slightly more than a year since the landmark March 8 general election, non-Muslims have come to know this party quite well. Names like Husam Musa, Khalid Samad, Dzulkefly Ahmad and Nizar Jamaluddin have now entered into the vocabulary of the average Malaysian together with already-familiar PAS names like Hadi Awang and Nik Aziz.

To a wide swathe of the non-Muslim population, PAS is certainly not so scary anymore. We have put faces to names, we have seen them reach out to non-Muslims in a meaningful manner and we have come to know what they stand for.

Sure, many of us are still wary of the conservative Islamist face of PAS as represented by the ulamas but we have learned to converse with the previously unknown. And it is this dialogue — more than the one Hadi and other pro-unity party members in his party seek with Barisan Nasional — which will make PAS a major player in the Malaysian political scene.

The irony, of course, is that Umno never proposed that Malaysia be an Islamic state but it has alienated many Malaysians with its Bumiputera-centric policies. These policies affect our lives and we feel them every day.

Yet, here is an Islamist party led by Hadi who in 1982 turned a nationalist religious party into an Islamist party and thus won over the Malay states in Malaysia. The party today stands for more than Islamist laws. It speaks about social welfare and justice.

So, yes, this Parti Se-Islam Malaysia (PAS) is poised to take over from the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) if it keeps the conversation going with the non-Muslims in Malaysia.