Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Posted: 23 Sep 2011 04:41 PM PDT

New Straits Times Editorial

PAS, or at least its feisty spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, wants to desperately reinstitute its Islamic state and hudud agenda barely three months after it shelved its most cherished dream to make way for a tenuous but politically expedient welfare/benevolent state.

You have to ask why Nik Aziz, who is also the Kelantan menteri besar, would risk resuming a feud with the DAP. Wasn't it Pas which rebranded itself when it surprisingly forged the "welfare/benevolent" state policy while electing that non-ulama political jester Mohamad Sabu as the party's new deputy president.

It could not be a coincidence. The shelving of the Islamic state goal was embraced by Pas' Pakatan partners, the DAP and PKR.

Even the feistier former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wryly remarked that DAP's Karpal Singh emerged the true winner after rebuffing the Pas ideal for years.

That was that but suddenly, the nation was riveted by the controversy that Mat Sabu outrageously ignited: he re-classified the Communist terrorists who massacred the 25 Malay police officers and their families in Bukit Kepong decades ago as "freedom fighters" on the basis that the dead were "British" officers.

Even Karpal and his senior DAP colleague Tunku Abdul Aziz, for their entire critical stance against the BN government, could not so stomach Mat Sabu's historical revisionism that they categorically made their feelings known in the mainstream media.

A month of intense debates later came Nik Aziz's startling pronouncement: initially Pas was to discuss with PKR and DAP on the idea of forming an Islamic state, but this was quickly upgraded into total dismissal of anything the DAP might have to object.

Karpal steadfastly rejected Pas' Islamic state pursuit as unconstitutional and impossible to implement. Kedah Pas wasn't enthusiastic while religious maverick, Dr Asri Zainul Abidin, articulated that hudud laws were unsuitable because the time was not conducive.

Sensing an opportunity, PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim backed Nik Aziz's declaration while asserting that in principle, Islamic law could be implemented without infringing non-Muslim rights.

Karpal might be thinking that he was dealing with more oddities: in response to Anwar, Karpal was "somewhat taken aback" with the stand of his client in the sodomy trial but avowed that Anwar's stance was "personal and it does not reflect the stand of the PKR".

Karpal is correct on his prognosis of Anwar, who is in it for his self-preservation simply because his trial on charges of sodomising a young male aide would have been a non-starter if hudud laws were applied.

The strict demand that FOUR morally-upright witnesses be produced as opposed to the alleged victim's testimony supported by DNA evidence was Anwar's natural defence. In the meantime, it didn't take long before Pas' (or Nik Aziz's) true form re-emerged. That hardcore essence of pursuing the Islamic state and execution of hudud laws is in their DNA. It is like instructing a scorpion not to sting.

It is obvious that Nik Aziz loathed the "welfare/benevolent" concept to begin with when the party chartered that vision to appease its political partners on the thought that it could swing voters should a snap general election they cavort be called.

But force of habit compelled the wily old guard to revert his position, thus triggering the old feud with Karpal and his secular soul mates.

But what does this lead to? The return to the old political bread and butter issues are understandable but eventually problematic because it still clashes with the Federal Constitution besides the bad blood with the DAP.

Pas is fond of accusing Dr Mahathir as the influential individual who barred the formation of an Islamic state in Kelantan but that's convenient scapegoating and cannot be a long-term plan.

The government, from the time of the founding fathers right to Dr Mahathir's era and now to the Najib administration has found it fit to retain Malaysia's moderateness while installing sensible Islamisation policies, a framework secularists have accommodated all these years.

Here are possible scenarios for Nik Aziz's abrupt reversal:

- Could it be that Mat Sabu's blighted history lesson was to distract detractors from his personal peccadillos; and,

- Because of Mat Sabu's indiscretion, Nik Aziz's born-again declaration was to avert a simmering electoral fall-out.

In Nik Aziz's supposition: better to reconvene the feud with the DAP on the Islamic state quandary rather than get kicked in the rear by voters, especially former soldiers who valiantly fought the terrorists, on Mat Sabu's poorly-judged departure from conventional wisdom that was a closure for the nation a long time ago.

Using hudud card to rally support

Posted: 23 Sep 2011 08:30 AM PDT

Realising that Barisan Nasional is making strides with Malay support, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is now openly embracing hudud law in support of PAS' ambition. His move may cost him the votes of non-Malays and moderate Muslims.

COMMENT By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY, The Star

AGAINST great risk of losing the support from non-Malay voters, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has come out to endorse hudud law in Kelantan, backing PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat's plan to implement the law and set up an Islamic state in the state.

The Opposition Leader's backing, although he said was in his personal capacity, is hugely different from his earlier commitment to religious pluralism and a multi-ethnic, secular society governed by secular, man-made laws.

The sudden change in attitude is a recognition on the part of PKR and PAS that they are rapidly losing Malay support with their concession to and dalliance with non-Malays, especially the Chinese voters.

This recognition had slowly dawned on them but was accelerated by the "Mat Sabu" incident in which PAS deputy president Mohamed Sabu has come under persistent fire for saying that the 26 policemen and their families who died defending the Bukit Kepong police station in 1950 against a band of communists led by Mat Indera, were not the real heroes.

The real heroes are Mat Indera and his communist band, Mat Sabu had claimed.

The incident has riled up many Malays and over 1,000 police reports were made.

Mat Sabu might have been charged for criminal defamation, but the case has strongly moved the Malay emotion and has become a rallying point against PAS.

No senior PAS leader has come to the defence of Mat Sabu who was left to manage the crisis on his own.

Umno has used the Mat Sabu case as a national rallying point whipping up strong reaction against him and PAS, accusing them as unpatriotic and showing little respect for the nation's founding fathers, Tunku Abdul Rahman and Datuk Onn Jaafar.

Constant reminders in the mainstream media that PAS had abandoned Islam and that it better drop the word "Islam" from its name has begun to rattle the party as well.

It is true that the party had abandoned its Islamic state policy for a welfare state at its last muktamar in July.

It also went on to elect Mat Sabu, a non-ulama who doesn't wear a turban and Arabic clothes, to its second highest elected office.

DAP especially was overjoyed with the way things had turned out at the PAS muktamar. But now that Anwar has sided with Nik Aziz on hudud, it has been left holding a time bomb in its lap.

DAP chairman Karpal Singh has always pointed out that hudud law was unconstitutional and the Federal Constitution would have to be amended to implement it.

That's why although the hudud law was passed in Kelantan and later in Terengganu, they were never implemented without the Federal Government's active support.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said on Thursday that the Federal Government would not implement hudud law as Malaysian society was not ready for it and investors would get worried.

It appears that Anwar, after years of preaching pluralism and Islamic moderation has come out in support of hudud law in Kelantan saying it was clear and would administer justice for their intended purposes.

It is a blow to all Anwarites. Both PAS and PKR are now seeking to win over the Malays with this sudden and fundamental change in policy towards hudud.

After four years, they now realise that only DAP would stand to benefit from their dalliance with the non-Malays.

But it is too late in the day to reverse track and try to appease the fundamentalist Malays with the promise of an Islamic state.

By coming out in support of hudud they are also alienating many Malays who oppose the law and had supported PKR's multi-racialism.

That section of support for PKR is also now in danger with Anwar's readiness to embrace hudud law in Kelantan.

The nation was founded on one set of secular laws and only one.

To introduce another set, no matter if it does not involve non-Muslims, is a radical move without precedent and will significantly impact on every facet of our life.

DAP, which has championed secular law, must come out in the open now and state whether it too supports hudud on the grounds that it does not involved non-Muslims.

What about the moderate Muslims who oppose hudud but support DAP?

The issue is fundamental and sits at the core of the relationship among Pakatan Rakyat parties.

Can they run and carry a theological party like PAS whose only ambition is to create an Islamic state?

Nik Aziz has made himself very clear on the matter. He is all for hudud law in Kelantan and when Pakatan Rakyat captures the country, for all of Malaysia.

That has been the pillar of PAS' struggle since the party's inception in 1951.

Politicians are ruled by political expediency and Anwar is no different. Realising that he is losing crucial Malay support, Anwar is forced to come out to endorse hudud law and support Nik Aziz's plan in Kelantan, leaving DAP out in the cold.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Sabtu, 24 September 2011

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

0 ulasan:

Catat Ulasan