The Pas Strategy Of Sleeping With All

---

Political and religious discussions are two of the most divisive issues in the world. As and when they are broached, these two topics can split communities, even families, apart.
Yet, there is something even more toxic than the above: political and religious discussions led by a cult of personality. That label, unfortunately, belongs to PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.
The word “unfortunate” has to be added to the description of Hadi for five important reasons, which require deep diving and elaboration.
First and foremost, granted that the guilt of ex-prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, has been established by the Federal Court and the High Court respectively and with hefty custodial sentences and humongous fines to boot, something is obviously very wrong with Umno, the party of Najib and current prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
Yet, to date, almost a month after the guilty verdicts of both culprits who stole billions of ringgit from the people and/or the government, Hadi has remained sheepishly quiet. Something is wrong with the moral stature of Hadi and PAS, which he leads since the demise of the late spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat in 2015.
Second, instead of pulling out from the ruinous government led by a prime minister who does not know how to handle the rising cost of living in Malaysia, Hadi has allowed all his PAS ministers and deputy ministers to prop up the administration. The love of political power for its sake seems to go above and beyond the love of moral integrity of true Islam.
As Prophet Muhammad SAAS once said: “When one is in doubt over any issue (if it is haram or halal) leave it.”
Abusing Islam for personal gain
Yet, despite the centrality of the important message in Islam, Hadi has done the complete opposite. Instead of leaving a government tainted by Umno, where other MPs from the party are also facing an avalanche of corruption charges including its leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Hadi instead chose to remain dumb, deaf, and mute.
Not only that, he is sending his deputies to strike a deal with Umno in preparation for the 15th general election. But many in Umno are resisting the overtures as they know PAS’ “sleeping with all” strategy to maximise the power and position that it can have. 
PAS president Abdul Hadi AwangThirdly, it does not seem to cross the mind of Hadi and all those in PAS who are propping up the wobbly government that using and abusing the name of Islam in any situation is downright forbidden. Such abuses of the religion must not exist in any form - be it individual or communal, in form or substance - let alone in the national context.
To make matters worse, Hadi has resorted to calling Pakatan Harapan a coalition of “infidels and the corrupt” although the opposition bloc is strongly rooted in combatting corruption. Should the former chief minister of Penang, Lim Guan Eng, who is also DAP chairperson, be convicted of corruption linked to the building of the undersea tunnel connecting the island to the mainland, there will be zero interference from Harapan.
Labelling others ‘infidels’
Fourthly, it boggles the mind that Hadi, who built his career in PAS as a “Tok Guru”, does not seem to have any sense of shame that both he and his party have crossed the line of decency many times over.
For a start, Hadi has not affirmed the act of “kafir mengkafir” or accusing others as infidels is patently wrong and forbidden in Islam as the basis of any discourse. For truly it is “God, and God alone, who knows the affairs of his servants’ heart”.
Thus, when all of “Amanat Hadi” (Hadi’s declaration that others are infidels) PAS and its president, it brings serious opprobrium to the image and reputation of Islam.
One of the noblest acts of Islam as embedded in its tradition is to “speak truth to the powers that be”. Short of distorting Islam completely in the eyes of all Malaysians, if not the whole world, Hadi remains defiant to what true Muslims really want - to keep Islam forever pure, principled, and pristine.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Idris Ahmad, from PAS, even had the audacity to remove Amanat Hadi from the government’s list of deviant teachings, supposedly in the name of streamlining fatwa.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Idris AhmadFinally, Hadi has, in a way, perjured the good name of Islamic jurisprudence. When an editor and a former editor of The Edge were hauled up to face criminal defamation charges for exposing alleged market manipulation. The publication highlighted the abnormal surge of penny stocks in 2020 and 2021.
Once again, the silence of Hadi and PAS was deafening. The above proves that Hadi and his cult-like believers in PAS are bending Islam for their own gains.
Now, the war drum and clarion call for GE15 is being sounded by one faction of Umno. Party president Zahid even stated that Umno/BN is ready for GE15 even amid the annual monsoon floods. He did not say how and whether they will help the people who are expected to suffer.
Letting Malaysia rot
Islam and democracy can co-exist. The will of the people can be the will of God. Not unlike how Caliph Abu Bakar was elected by consensus to succeed in the role of Prophet Muhammad SAAS after the demise of the latter from old age at 63.
Yet, what Hadi and PAS have done is sink their fangs deeper into the constitutional monarchy of Malaysia. This is done by bleeding it dry through drips and drabs. Instead of speaking up against corruption, Hadi and PAS have held their annual muktamar to affirm that only PAS deserves to be in power for PAS, and PAS alone is “the straight path”.
How can Hadi and PAS live up to the hallmarks of Islam of being a comprehensive faith that is deeply offended by all acts of corruption, theft, and larceny?
In the Quran, it is clear: “And do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly or send it (in bribery) to the rulers in order that (they might aid) you (to) consume a portion of the wealth of the people in sin, while you know (it is unlawful) (AlBaqarah 2:188).”
At a time when up to 90 percent or more of all Malaysians do not have enough to even enjoy the notion of retiring at 60, let alone 65, Malaysia is obviously in serious and systemic need of all-round institutional reforms.
The country is now at the precipice of a serious meltdown. Not only has the country been ravaged by corruption, Covid-19, climate change, and the corrosive effects of deleterious
trade wars between China and the West, the Russia-Ukraine war has also refused to relent. Malaysia as a trading nation is also caught between the US and China, two of the world’s biggest economies that are now bent on decoupling from each other.
Hadi and PAS have not touched on any of these issues over the last two years since the party started working with a government that was undemocratically formed from under the nose of Harapan on March 1, 2020. Sheer silence implies the consent to let Malaysia rot.
Malaysia is indeed rotting. The ringgit has been weak since the transition of the Harapan government to the one today. Inflation is threatening to take the country on the trajectory of Sri Lanka.
According to Indonesia President Joko Widodo, there are 60 countries on the International Monetary Fund’s and World Bank’s watch list. Joko may not have mentioned it, but it is highly probable that Malaysia is on the list, or will soon be on it.
If the likes of Hadi and PAS continue to work closely with a clueless Umno administration that has all but been hollowed out of any administrative talents, then may Allah save Malaysia. - Mkini
RAIS HUSSIN is CEO of Emir Research, a think tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based on rigorous research.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

---