The PAS Dilemma

I'm writing this a day after some 20 people protested in front of the Selangor PAS Headquarters demanding that PAS pull out from the state government in Selangor stating that PAS is better of on its own and that in Pakatan Rakyat PAS are being dominated by it's partners which are PKR and DAP. Of course PAS and Pakatan blamed UMNO for the incident claiming that the protest is the work of UMNO and not PAS which UMNO has denied. Whatever the truth is, with no doubt that PAS is indeed in a dilemma and needs to solve this dilemma quickly and properly.

The dilemma is obviously should the party stay on with Pakatan Rakyat or should they leave either being independent, join UMNO or be a party within BN like they did in the 70s. At stake here is the ideological struggle that PAS has been fighting since it's formation as a splinter party from UMNO, which is the Islamic state struggle, the main agenda of PAS. Let's consider the options here.

First is the stay with Pakatan option. This option is probably the most politically rewarding move on behalf of PAS as can be seen by the electoral gains the party made by capturing Kedah and for a while heading the executive branch of the Perak state government before it's collapse, not to mention an involvement in the running of Selangor and Penang state government.

This all will not be possible without the non-Malays vote that it received courtesy of it's coalition partners especially DAP( the capture of Kedah is a prime example as Mat Sabu stated that the lack of non-Malays vote is the only reason behind the party failure to capture the state all this years), the vote that remains elusive to the party due to the image by the non-Malays that Islamic state means the curtailing of their religious rights and lifestyles( the later is probably justified) unless PAS is prepared to follow a lenient Hudud law which might not be popular with some of the fundamentalists within the party establishment.

The second option is to leave Pakatan and join UMNO or BN, if done properly, this may be the most politically rewarding move by PAS,however there are inherent risks that history can show PAS if it decides to do so. One can remember what happened to PAS when it joined BN in the 70s, not only that they were ignored by UMNO and BN once UMNO and BN managed to undo the damage of the 1969 General Election when the won big in the 1974 General Election, the party was split into many waring factions when the party left the BN in eventually few years later and it took them years to recover, 14 years to be exact when with the now defunct Semangat 46 they took control of the Kelantan state government.

Of course on the upside there's the possibility of being in the ruling government which will lead to more rewards in the form of monetary reward for PAS MPs and state assemblymens, more federal allocation to PAS ruled states and so on, political reward such as ministerial posts for PAS top leadership and PAS can probably control a few national or state agencies like Felda when Asri Muda was the Minister of Land in the 70s.

So despite the risks, there are rewards but either way PAS will play second fiddle to UMNO, just like in the 70s, toe the line or leave BN as UMNO will not bow down to any other positions but as the political masters and to please the other BN partners, like MCA who's oppose to the Islamic state concept, in BN PAS can forget about its main political agenda of turning Malaysia into an Islamic state.

Finally there's the least politically rewarding option of becoming independent. Well PAS will lose the non-Malays vote and that might cause them the state of Kedah, not to mention losing a chance of being part of the Selangor and Penang state government, of course they can keep their option open by opting to work with either Pakatan or BN and leaving at their wimps and fancies while gaining either the rewards from Pakatan or BN along the way.

Certainly a viable way to move forward while keeping their Islamic state agenda struggle, however this can only be done when either coalition is desperately in need of PAS like BN in 1972 and Pakatan now as without the need there's no reason for Pakatan nor BN to except a party that is not committed to the respective coalition cause not to mention PAS will also get less of the rewards if either coalition governs the country or state as their lack of commitment may cause a feeling of distrust by the coalition thus strategic posts might not be awarded to PAS because of that.

Now the PAS leadership must do some deep soul-searching to find which path they want to take and neither path is filled with roses rather there're filled with sacrifices and compromise(thorns to be a little bit symbolic), and the decision that they arrived at will have profound impact on the Malaysia political landscape and the Malaysian people at large so it's understandable that the writer is keeping an eye(without blinking so to speak) on this national and public interest decision as there's to much at stake for all parties not to ignore the final outcome of the climatic moment that begun with the historical March 8 2008 General Election( mother of all elections).