Do not PAS go, do not collect hudud
Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) Common Policy Framework (CPF) provides a reference for voters who want to find out what the informal coalition’s larger plan might be in its quest for Putrajaya. Considering the mismatched internal ideologies among the component parties — especially PAS in contrast to PKR and DAP — makes the CPF rather important.
With motivational underpinnings far from clear cut, the alliance remains primarily one of convenience predicated on the ousting of BN. If, or once, that happens, who knows what next?
That is why it is continually surprising — and I bet especially so for PR supporters themselves — that one of the three coalition component parties habitually rocks the boat using its own internal ideologies and idiosyncrasies.
With friends like these who needs enemies?
PAS’s on/off Malay unity courtship with Umno is a good example of its endemic selfishness and obliviousness to its sympathisers. It demonstrates that PAS has no qualms picking on some major checkpoints on the list of any issues-oriented, well-informed would-be voter and potential PAS sympathiser — the very things that erode confidence in an infant coalition that still has plenty to prove.
Last year we heard of PAS’s non-support for local elections — which no PAS spokesperson has explained why yet. More recently was PAS’s continued insistence on its Darul Islam agenda, which aims to set up an Islamic state in Malaysia — including its firm stand on the implementation of hudud.
Newsflash to PAS: you may have your supporters, but don’t confuse them with your more numerical sympathisers. They hardly share your ideology.
So what gives here? In the CPF; PKR, DAP and PAS profess democracy, but it would appear PAS, given half a chance, wants to smack down its brand of theocracy on Malaysia.
This is not the first time, of course. PAS attempted to do just that in its fortified state of Kelantan in the early 1990s as well as a decade later in Terengganu, but incompatibility with federal law put paid to that ambition.
As observers, we’re allowed to speculate whether PAS’s acceptance, or rather lack of passionate pursuit to keep pushing, for hudud despite the initial federal hurdle meant it was just posturing. If that is indeed the case, doesn’t PAS think a heads-up would be appreciated by PKR and DAP?
Otherwise, we have to conclude that if PAS says it wants to court the votes of non-Muslims, it sure has a funny way of doing it.
Reading the news reports it’s obvious that the PAS ulama camp is the instigator whenever any alliance boat rocking is on the agenda, and the PAS technocrat camp, the suppressor. This can’t keep happening; if that were a family, calling them dysfunctional would be kind.
PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hasan Tantawi takes the cake: “Existing man-made laws have failed. It is high time the DAP leaders opened their eyes to the hudud, qisas and ta’zir enactments that could help overcome social woes.” That, and his sermonising tweets on hudud, betrays a worldview that is immediately at odds with the CPF.
May I suggest that in the future, before PAS again raises its two favourite spanners and shoves it into the works, that it:
1. Explain clearly to its own coalition first and get their buy in with regards to its Islamic state plans (including and especially how non-Muslims or “dhimmis” fare) and hudud law — before repeating it to the larger public. We would all be interested to know what PAS would do if it gets to practise hudud. Judging from past action, some are betting that its first priority is policing women’s attire as opposed to something more substantial. It behooves PAS to clarify.
2. Be realistic about its Islamic state ambitions. Instead of the whole country — which would require two-thirds majority and the consent of the King to amend the constitution — perhaps just being selective in favour of its strong states as “syariah experiment zones”, leaving the rest of the country secular. Well, if BN can divide and rule along racial lines, perhaps PR along ideological lines. At least people can see how commercially (e.g. tourism), scientifically (e.g. innovation) and socially (e.g. integration) the hudud states would fare.
3. Resist from falling back on the “if only the critics would understand the principles of hudud” line; or that criticising hudud is somehow “sensitive”. Here’s the thing: the fact that people are questioning hudud should tell its advocates that people care enough to want to understand. PAS’s job is not merely to defend its position, but win people over. It is the duty of hudud proponents to explain and enlighten through persuasive argument. In fact, they should do what other disciplines do when they need to communicate a position — publish a position paper, debate in an open forum, etc.
4. When going public with hudud, refrain from using “argument from authority” or “appeal to authority” when claiming why hudud is “just and fair” because not only is that approach dogmatic, it does not wash with non-Muslims and non-believers. A rational, empirical approach would be appreciated — for example, a comparison between how secular and syariah law might address the same issues differently, or citing historical and current examples of successfully implemented hudud (hopefully not Saudi Arabia or Iran).
5. And last but not least, that PAS does not assume that all Malaysian Muslims are for PAS’s brand of hudud. I say PAS’s hudud because taking all of Islam’s schisms and fiqh schools and mazhabs into consideration, no way can PAS claim it holds the one and only legitimate view.
That is all.
Zeffri Yusof is an ex-journo and all-round informavore. Zeffri believes in the force of Reason, human goodness and dignity, and the "machahood" of man. He's on and off on twitter.com/zeffri
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