Saturday, July 31, 2010

The UMNO-PAS Divide

Political parties and affiliations have divided people in this world more than racial, lingual and religious differences. If this is true for the world it is also true for Malaysia. The Muslims and the Malays in this country had never been been segregated or divided because of the different States they come from or the dialects they speak. It's the political parties they support or affliate themselves with which divide them and had caused unpleasant and even harmfull relationship.
UMNO and PAS must of course accept this fact although none should be blamed for it's the nature of political development in this country which led to that situation. It is the nature of politics to divide people into interest and pressure groups in order to gain support and compete for power to rule over the population. Polical parties are the instrument and the outcome of such division. It's as natural as the the different branding of the same consumer products to compete for customers in the open market.
Asking political parties to merge or enter into a coalition in order to reduce divisiveness among the people is like asking companies producing different product brands to sell their products under just one brand. It's like asking the companies themselves to merge their interests. It can be done, of course, but it isn't easy. This seems to be the dilemma facing the UMNO and PAS leadersip in response to the call to bring the Muslims and the Malays together again. Each has it's corporate image and interests to protect with its own team of affiliates to consult, even when the arguments for such a move are very pursuasive and convinving.
UMNO and PAS had experienced a coalition before and it didn't work for long. PAS was then standing on its own without other affiliates, official or otherwise. Now it's no longer so and that makes a coalition with UMNO more difficult. Even working together would be difficult because each is guided by a different beacon. The perplexing enigma is that the beacon is the same if it is Islam. Unless they have different versions of the religion, they shouldn't be going in different directions. If it is a matter of pursuing the same goals through different methods and strategies, then at some point they must still converge.
The question then is: where will that point be? Will it happen before GE13 or after?

17 comments:

abdulhalimshah said...

Ya Akhi,
I am not an expert on politics, but I am concerned with the going-ons in Malay Polity.
Although ethnicity is inevitable in our multiracial society, but it should not be an impediment to harmony and goodwill. In fact there are more strife in countries where they belong to the same race but owing to factors such as tribalism or parochialism, violence and civil strife occurs more frequently. We see such incidents happening in the Indian Subcontinent and it is not a simple conflict of differing beliefs, but much more deep rooted in their historical development.
I do not see much purpose in talkiing about Malay unity because just like Chinese unity, the divisions are merely superficial. What is more important is the unity in purpose, aims and beliefs. We must believe in having a society driven by a moral code of conduct based on our Faith for all ethnic group and not just the Malays. We talk about Malay unity but it is as surreal as the rainbow. We keep on chasing on something which is not there. We must focus on the forging of a united and integrated society for all ethnic groups where we can assure our future generations shall in peace and respect each others differences and accept our cultural diversity. It is a red herring to talk of Malay unity because even as a family we can be divided, what more on a macro-level of race. So I am not going to be distracted by the UMNO-PAS divide, because in politics they can never be together because they simply have different dreams if ever they can sleep together.
I do not see much advantage of UMNO-PAS merger because it will only result in horse trading of posts in government just like when Dato' Asri as leader of PAS joined the Coalition but it was short lived. Furthermore I did not see the wisdom of the Perak Mufti opening his big gap and he should just confine himself to advise the Sultan of Perak what should be done to improve the lot of Muslims in that State. There are many issues pertaining to the moral decay in that Silver State where he should be on the ground to find out why the youngsters are not doing their obligations as Muslims and leave politics to others who are more shrewd than a Mufti could be.

norzah said...

Thanks, Akhi Halim, that's a most sobering comment, giving a lot of hope where doubts and fear (of losing the Malay majoriry) had been rampant.' We must focus on the forging of a united and integrated society for all ethnic groups where we can assure our future generations shall in peace and respect each others differences and accept our cultural diversity.' That's spoken like a real Statesman.
I agree fully although at the back of my mind is still the question: why are the Muslims never united as if they pray to different Gods (nauzubillah). If you're beholden to the same teachings and ideals, at least at some points, you must converge. But that never seems to happen.

Al-Manar said...

Dear Norzah,
I am just lost with so many problems I see, from price of sugar to education and social ills.At times I feel that we should just have a dictator ruling the country, giving orders what to do and punishing the wrong doers instead of making people wait for years and years to be hanged or set free. I cannot stand hearing the 'islam hadhari' and such greeting as 'salam 1Malaysia'.

norzah said...

I think many people feel as lost as you are or even more so, Akhi Pakcik Al-Manar. All we can do in the storm of changing tides and times is hang on to our own conviction based on the teachings of our faith and the ideals of our belief. We might not be able to change the course of events as triggered by the actions of those in power, but discussing them with friends relieves the pressure from the proverbial 'boils'. We throw our views into cyberspace and who knows, they might help to form what is known as a public opinion. I don't have many readers but am glad to see that readers from up to eight or more countries have visited us. So, your views are reaching out to them as much as mine. That's enough reason to keep the discussion going, even if we have to beat up a 'dead horse'. Salamualaikum.

kaykuala said...

Akhi Norzah,
We’ve seen the unity once before, unified but still separated as different parties in a coalition. We’ve seen it break-up and back to square one. Now there is talk of unity again.
When it happened the first time, the architects of unity brought in the many parties into a coalition, some then in the opposition ( Gerakan, PPP, PAS) together with the traditional partners of UMNO, MCA and MIC.

Why? Apparently the idea was to reduce politicking and political bickering which were unproductive and to concentrate on development issues. It worked for a while.

Why? Apparently not so much because everyone were involved in nation building but more so because everyone were given positions of power.

When it broke up, it was mainly PAS that was involved and immediately they shouted ‘ UMNO kafir’ and things.

Now do you expect UMNO – PAS to unite again when PAS has now found an alternative grouping with Pakatan where they are enjoying the power of governing like before?

Never mind, they ( PAS ) are set aside on most matters, never mind they have to roll on the ground to prop up and protest the sacking of the Perak govt, never mind they have to face up , answer and take the brunt of ‘ALLAH issue, have DAP placards all over them to help a DAP victory in Sabah and to gleefully accept the Penang Chief Minister as emulating the teachings of one of the Caliphs. No, it is ok UMNO is more kafir than the DAP!

For all these compromises ( including their brand of the fundamental ‘Islamic State’) just so they expect now to walk along side DAP to Putrajaya ( they feel it is being so near and yet so far) that unity is uppermost in their minds?

No way! Not now, not before GE13 unless something really, really big happens that it cannot be ignored.

norzah said...

Akhi Kaykuala, I think you've seen the cat-dog cartoon on Disney Channel ( I'm assuming here for I never really watch it) where one end of the animal is a cat and the other end is a dog. They can never agree but they got along somehow. To me both Barisan and Pakatan show smack of that character, must tow a very flimsy line of agreement and give tones of excuses if they have to displease their supporters.
Everyone 'main wayang' but at every turn the Malays seem to loose out. I feel that the time is near when the ummah cannot accept this trickery anymore and the GE13 will show their reaction.

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