The 58th Muktamar PAS which began today is held in a very calm manner. However, it looks too quite for a party which is preparing themselves to head to ‘war’ for the coming GE.
All Youth, Muslimah as well as Ulama representatives, seems to be too cautious in presenting their motions. This is not surprising considering that PAS is now in a tough spot. Their biggest dilemma would be to take care of their allies as well as their own supporters, when these two groups obviously have two separate opinions.
A few issues which could deter PAS’s supporters’s trust to the party and could crush PAS in PR would be Hudud, freedom of religion for Muslims, PAS-DAP-PKR’s cooperation, Election seats’ distribution as well as the Prime Minister’s post. The two things which PAS is really scared about would be if representatives began to ask about DAP’s sincerity as well as how ‘pure’ Anwar Ibrahim is.
When the fact is, this is few of the main problems which PAS face considering how far they derailed from their original mission. Most representatives are hoping that this Muktamar would explain all of those doubts and to gain back the trust in PAS so that the party would go back to its original objectives.
Realizing that they are far from their real fight, this Muktamar stressed that hudud would still be implemented if PR wins and the party would gain majority votes in the Parliament and it will be approved.
For that, PAS’s Ulama Council Chief, Datuk Harun Taib said, “Our coalition has agreed that not just hudud, even Islamic syariah will be implemented when we managed to gain rakyat’s trust in leading Malaysia, but the Islamic syariah will only be implemented according to principals of democracy.”
For PAS members who are still blurry about this, this is just as same as saying that the implementation of hudud by PR would depend on DAP and PKR, not solely on PAS. In other words, there is no guarantee that it will be implemented, or to be precise, it will never be implemented due to the type of society we have in this country, as well as PAS’s attitude in following the democratic system.
Thus, if PAS supporters really want drastic changes which is Islamic if PR rules, then they should stop hoping.
In terms of hudud, Harun Taib also reminded supporters that there is a probability that they would gain majority in the Parliament which would depend on the number of seats which they have competed during the election as well of number of seats they might win.
When we talk about probability, it is not impossible that things might go the other way around.
So, if PAS really want their motions to be implemented, they do not have any other options but to ensure that they really compete and win more seats than PKR and DAP.
This is what worries PAS, their capability in winning more seats than their allies. If PAs fails, then PR’s ruling system would definitely bring the aspiration of DAP’s ‘Malaysian-Malaysia’ as well as PKR’s liberal and plural where PAS’s hudud or even their Islamic nation will turn to dust, probably Islam as the official religion which UMNO has been defending all these while might even turn to ashes.
But sadly, those worries were pushed aside by Ulama, Youth as well as Muslimah PAS. Even though leaders of PAS in Muktamar are exited to face the GE, but they know that the party do not really share the same excitement.
That is why, PAS’s 58th Muktamar becomes a bit boring because it does not have that fighting sense like they had in their previous years. All of their worries which they might offend DAP seems to obvious.
The conclusion, PAS supporters need to accept the fact that their leaders are forcing them to accept two probabilities if PR wins the coming GE which are:
1. If PAS becomes the majority in Parliament, the party still cannot guarantee that hudud will be implemented.
2. If PAS becomes the minority in Parliament, hudud will certainly not be implemented because this country will officially declared as a Secular country and Islam would no longer be the official religion.
