PAS vice-president Husam Musa's recent speech that the party needs to embrace free-market principles and pluralism ought to be welcomed on two levels.
For the liberals, both classical and social, it indicates that their ideas are steadily gaining currency in the public discourse.
All Malaysians, however, should rejoice that PAS, and increasingly other political parties are seeing the need to expand their ideological base beyond the narrow sectarian confines of the past.
It remains to be seen if the progress of liberal ideas and the diversification of political ideologies will continue in PAS.
A lot rides on whether or not reformists like Husam, who is running for the party's deputy presidency and his counterparts on both sides of the partisan fence prevail over their conservative rivals who are indifferent, even hostile to such a paradigm shift.
Many analysts have speculated that a lot is riding on PAS' internal elections as it is increasingly obvious that the party will play a role in whatever direction the country's political future takes.
All this has led to an increased amount of attention on the party's elections and introspection among many Malaysians towards the country's most controversial political party.
Lead in a broad-based, inclusive manner
As a young non-Muslim Malaysian with generally liberal leanings, I have always had mixed feelings about PAS. The party has been painted as the ultimate bogeyman by the establishment media and pundits to my demographic group, often with general success.
Incidents like their periodic campaigns against alcohol consumption and teeny-bopper music only served to heighten my discontent towards the brand of politics that they practiced.
On the other hand, one cannot help but admire the dedication and perseverance that the PAS ranks have shown in their long, twilight struggle in opposition.
The high regard, even affection by which their leaders like Nik Aziz Nik Mat (right) are accorded to, not only by Muslim Malaysians but their compatriots of other faiths as well, suggest that there is more to PAS than what the powers-that-be would have us believe.
More importantly, however, is the small but growing number amongst them who realise, like their colleagues both in Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional that Malaysia can only be led effectively in a broad-based, inclusive manner.
The politicians who realised this before and since March 8, 2008 have grown in stature, while those who have not or will not have only exacerbated the sectarian tensions that threaten to rend this country apart.
It is unfortunate, therefore, that practitioners of the latter brand of politics seem to have the former on the back-foot.
Indeed, it seems many young leaders, regardless of their party, who want public life in Malaysia to be more than a zero-sum game dictated by archaic sectarian rivalries are being hounded into obscurity while the demagogues triumph.
The enemies PAS want us to see
The possibility of this happening in PAS is all the more sad because Malaysians have had, for the last couple of months the chance to see what the party could be like if it was led by moderates.
The picture that that possibility presented was inspiring and promising: MP for Shah Alam Khalid Samad (right) visiting a Catholic Church (the construction of which had faced numerous bureaucratic obstacles) in his constituency and receiving rave reviews from the parishioners.
Nik Aziz standing up for his fellow PKR and DAP leaders smeared by the reactionary press. The dignity and courage that Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin has shown in the Perak crisis.
These images present a powerful counter-argument to the picture that the real enemies of PAS want ordinary Malaysians to see, that of an intolerant and exclusivist cabal, rather than what they are or rather could be - a dedicated band of individuals, united but not monolithic in their belief that religious faith can and ought to have a place in politics.
PAS will have to choose between these two Janus-like images of themselves come this Friday.
One picture and the path it points to may guarantee the party some short-term political gains. But the other will secure the future of our country and the Malaysians who are to come after us. Which will PAS take, and indeed all other Malaysian parties who will sooner or later find themselves confronted with the same fork in the road?
The last thing on this author's mind is to try and interfere with the internal affairs of a political party or the deliberations of its leadership who are far wiser than he ever will be.
But allow me to posit humbly that Malaysians, especially the young who will theoretically inherit the mantle of leadership and who have proven to be irrevocably unsatisfied with the status quo, have a right to demand, from PAS greater choice and diversity in politics than what we have had to make do with in the past.
The same goes for their allies in Pakatan and their adversaries in Barisan.
PAS itself deserves the kind of leadership that will allow it to stand on its own feet for its own platform (which currently and hopefully continues to champion the rights of all Malaysians), rather than as part of some misguided notions of unity.
Let me end by congratulating the party on its long, illustrious history, its successes past, present and future, and to wish its delegates a fruitful conference.
Malaysiakini
05/06/09
For the liberals, both classical and social, it indicates that their ideas are steadily gaining currency in the public discourse.
All Malaysians, however, should rejoice that PAS, and increasingly other political parties are seeing the need to expand their ideological base beyond the narrow sectarian confines of the past.
It remains to be seen if the progress of liberal ideas and the diversification of political ideologies will continue in PAS.
A lot rides on whether or not reformists like Husam, who is running for the party's deputy presidency and his counterparts on both sides of the partisan fence prevail over their conservative rivals who are indifferent, even hostile to such a paradigm shift.
Many analysts have speculated that a lot is riding on PAS' internal elections as it is increasingly obvious that the party will play a role in whatever direction the country's political future takes.
All this has led to an increased amount of attention on the party's elections and introspection among many Malaysians towards the country's most controversial political party.
Lead in a broad-based, inclusive manner
As a young non-Muslim Malaysian with generally liberal leanings, I have always had mixed feelings about PAS. The party has been painted as the ultimate bogeyman by the establishment media and pundits to my demographic group, often with general success.
Incidents like their periodic campaigns against alcohol consumption and teeny-bopper music only served to heighten my discontent towards the brand of politics that they practiced.
On the other hand, one cannot help but admire the dedication and perseverance that the PAS ranks have shown in their long, twilight struggle in opposition.
The high regard, even affection by which their leaders like Nik Aziz Nik Mat (right) are accorded to, not only by Muslim Malaysians but their compatriots of other faiths as well, suggest that there is more to PAS than what the powers-that-be would have us believe.
More importantly, however, is the small but growing number amongst them who realise, like their colleagues both in Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional that Malaysia can only be led effectively in a broad-based, inclusive manner.
The politicians who realised this before and since March 8, 2008 have grown in stature, while those who have not or will not have only exacerbated the sectarian tensions that threaten to rend this country apart.
It is unfortunate, therefore, that practitioners of the latter brand of politics seem to have the former on the back-foot.
Indeed, it seems many young leaders, regardless of their party, who want public life in Malaysia to be more than a zero-sum game dictated by archaic sectarian rivalries are being hounded into obscurity while the demagogues triumph.
The enemies PAS want us to see
The possibility of this happening in PAS is all the more sad because Malaysians have had, for the last couple of months the chance to see what the party could be like if it was led by moderates.
The picture that that possibility presented was inspiring and promising: MP for Shah Alam Khalid Samad (right) visiting a Catholic Church (the construction of which had faced numerous bureaucratic obstacles) in his constituency and receiving rave reviews from the parishioners.
Nik Aziz standing up for his fellow PKR and DAP leaders smeared by the reactionary press. The dignity and courage that Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin has shown in the Perak crisis.
These images present a powerful counter-argument to the picture that the real enemies of PAS want ordinary Malaysians to see, that of an intolerant and exclusivist cabal, rather than what they are or rather could be - a dedicated band of individuals, united but not monolithic in their belief that religious faith can and ought to have a place in politics.
PAS will have to choose between these two Janus-like images of themselves come this Friday.
One picture and the path it points to may guarantee the party some short-term political gains. But the other will secure the future of our country and the Malaysians who are to come after us. Which will PAS take, and indeed all other Malaysian parties who will sooner or later find themselves confronted with the same fork in the road?
The last thing on this author's mind is to try and interfere with the internal affairs of a political party or the deliberations of its leadership who are far wiser than he ever will be.
But allow me to posit humbly that Malaysians, especially the young who will theoretically inherit the mantle of leadership and who have proven to be irrevocably unsatisfied with the status quo, have a right to demand, from PAS greater choice and diversity in politics than what we have had to make do with in the past.
The same goes for their allies in Pakatan and their adversaries in Barisan.
PAS itself deserves the kind of leadership that will allow it to stand on its own feet for its own platform (which currently and hopefully continues to champion the rights of all Malaysians), rather than as part of some misguided notions of unity.
Let me end by congratulating the party on its long, illustrious history, its successes past, present and future, and to wish its delegates a fruitful conference.
Malaysiakini
05/06/09
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