Deepening social polarisation
Umno’s enthusiastic engagement of PAS is indeed to exploit religious issues in a bid to consolidate its grip on administrative power.
By Sin Chew Daily
Prime Minister Najib Razak and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang sat side by side during the just concluded Solidarity Gathering for Rohingya, sparking widespread speculation on these two former political rivals.
That was the second time Najib was seated next to the PAS president after an event organised by the alumni of the Al-Azhar University last December.
From the frequent displays of goodwill during the recent Umno general assembly, it is not hard to see that the Rohingya meet was merely another platform to declare the increasingly intimate developments between the two parties, while at the same time reflecting the direction of national politics towards a grand unity of Muslims.
As a matter of fact, Umno and PAS started to show signs of reconciliation as early as after the 2013 general election.
To these two Malay-dominant parties, working together has been painted as a positive sign for the unity of the country’s Muslims and defence of the Islamic faith. When the two leaders met last year, they already insisted that their political differences should not become a stumbling block for Muslim unity.
In this year’s Umno assembly, leaders from Najib to Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein, have not ruled out the possibility of the party working with PAS, and have even concluded that Umno-PAS collaboration is a natural development arising from deepened awareness in the global Islamic agenda.
The recent move by the government to take over the RUU355 further proves that the two parties no longer intend to hide their relationship.
The real motive behind Umno’s enthusiastic engagement of PAS is none other than reaching out to the conservative Muslims ahead of the next general election (GE14), and that Umno indeed has to exploit the religious issues in a bid to consolidate its grip on administrative power.
While the cooperation between Umno and PAS does help unite Muslims in the country, strengthening both parties’ winning chances in GE14, especially in rural Malay constituencies, Umno’s continued stress on religious values will only push Malaysian society closer to Islamisation, creating entrenched polarisation between the country’s Muslim and non-Muslim societies.
The Umno-PAS collaboration is set to have a major impact on the entire political scenario. Non-Muslim BN component parties, such as MCA, Gerakan and MIC will face increasingly severe challenges.
The reckless allegations made against other BN components by Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin have shown little respect for Umno’s allies, putting the BN spirit in a very precarious position.
Najib has said that Umno can work with PAS but it is still premature to talk about a formal political alliance.
That said, anything can happen in politics, as evidenced by the cordial relationship today between former Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad and DAP’s Lim Kit Siang. As such, it is not impossible for Najib and Hadi to officially seal their relationship one day.
Nevertheless, if Najib works with PAS in creating a country that conforms to Islamic teachings in order to protrude Malaysia’s Islamic image just because of political interests, this will not augur well for the country’s pursuit of economic transformation and high-income status.
Sin Chew Daily is a local vernacular publication
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