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Many Malaysians, including myself, were surprised at Zaid Ibrahim’s claim that PAS would make an incorruptible government.
The former minister seems to have based his idea on the fact that PAS does not have many corruption cases and that the party&#8217;s religious ideology will discourage its members from such practices.
In this article, I would like to explain why I agree, and disagree, with Zaid wholeheartedly.
Yes, it was &#8220;incorruptible&#8221; once upon a time, but times have changed.
I am in a unique position to give this perspective because I had supported PAS for more than 30 years—since my days in Wisconsin, US, where I studied architecture for six years.
I was trained by students who were affiliated with PAS through the Malaysian Islamic Study Group, or MISG. When I came back to Malaysia, I supported PAS in all its activities and attended many muktamars (the party&#8217;s general assemblies) especially during the early days of Reformasi.
I have also watched personally and directly how PAS mobilised its members to support Anwar Ibrahim after he was unjustly incarcerated when Barisan Nasional, led by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, formed the government.
PAS played a vital role in the Reformasi movement—leading a coalition called Gerak, which comprised 25 NGOs including the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement, better known as Abim.
There was no Bersih at the time to champion anything. Malaysians could only rely on the might of PAS and DAP to save the country from Umno and Mahathir.
Most non-Malays did not support either PAS or Anwar until much later when Bersih appeared on the scene, hijacked the Reformasi cause and turned it into a movement to save Malaysia from BN’s alleged corrupt practices.
But without Barisan Alternatif—led by PAS and with PKR and DAP alongside—BN would not have fallen.
I attended many PAS ceramahs in the past, and also have in my possession hundreds of CDs of speeches by Mohamad Sabu, former PAS spiritual leader the late Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the late Salahuddin Ayub, current PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, Hasan Ali and former deputy minister Hatta Ramli.
PAS had the best of the best Malay leaders who were professionals, and their religious leaders like Nik Aziz Nik Mat were the embodiment of Islam.
If the PAS of that era had ruled Malaysia, I would have staked my family’s life to assure all my non-Malay friends of the equal justice that would have been meted out to all.
The Islamic reform movement under Abim, Ikram and PAS was aimed at the Malay elite who had exploited religion to control the community and propagate the Malay supremacist ideology. The movement rejected outrightly the use of the race card.
Thus, I would agree 100% with Zaid if the PAS of 20 or 30 years ago had come to power. We would have seen a different Malaysia as the PAS of that era would have been willing to work with the likes of DAP and others.
But sadly, PAS now is a different political animal altogether.
Firstly, it had purged the party of all the professionals capable of becoming its president. The so-called professionals like Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar are nothing more than a side show in Hadi&#8217;s regime.
Hadi&#8217;s PAS worked together with Umno under the Muafakat Nasional banner and finally confirmed an open secret that it was collaborating with former prime minister Najib Razak.
Under Hadi’s leadership, and without the influence of factions aligned to Anwar, PAS began adopting a “race supremacy” ideology. This was anathema to its past positions which condemned &#8220;assabiyah&#8221; (tribalism) as an inherently exclusionary framework for social and political management.
After all, it is in line with Prophet Muhammad’s reminder and advice that no one race is better than another.
PAS then went on a race and religiously-tinged campaign to lure the Malays to its fold.
When Umno was divided, PAS got the lion’s share of protest votes from Umno members. It also helped that PAS was ingenious enough to leverage social media to capture the young Malay voters who were ignorant of what Malaysia stood for, as were most of their parents.
With slogans and motorcycles flooding the internet on social media, PAS had its best outing in Malaysian politics at a time when its Islamic values were totally compromised.
We have seen how Hadi has accused non-Muslims in Malaysia as having no dignity and also susceptible to corruption.
We have seen how PAS members label non-Muslims in DAP as &#8220;kafir harbi&#8221; (belligerent infidels) and associate Communism and Christianity with the Chinese citizens of this country.
And fundraisers by PAS to come to the aid of those found libel of slander shows how much it has strayed from the path of Islam which it had advocated only two decades ago.
The party’s most spiteful act, however, was its declaration of the Qunut Nazilah in Parliament—declaring all Malaysians opposed to Perikatan Nasional as enemies of Islam.
How can such a party be tasked with ruling a Malaysia made up of many cultures, religions and heritage?
PAS may have been the best party to rule Malaysia if it were the party of the past. PAS of the past.
As the Malays say: &#8220;Lain hulu, lain parang, PAS dulu bukan PAS sekarang.&#8221; (The PAS of the present is no longer the PAS of the past.)
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The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.

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