COMMENT The takeover of the PAS leadership by the ulama has meant, among other things, that the new leadership is more focused on its survival, rather than adopting principled positions.

Once regarded as a sound and solid party when it comes to ideals or principles, it has now descended into the deceitful world of double-talk and political hypocrisy.

It tries hard to support the beleaguered regime of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak by adopting an Islamic approach.

While the PAS leadership supports the investigation into 1MDB, it at the same time has come out with preposterous and nonsensical statements to support Najib. 

One of the well-known PAS leaders, Haron Din, went to the extent of casting doubts on the allegations of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports.

Party president Abdul Hadi Awang sought to lessen the impact of the WSJ allegations fallout by saying that four witnesses were needed from the viewpoint of syariah law to prove the case against Najib.

Hadi's call for four witnesses in Najib's case is a laughing matter. Either he does not understand Islamic jurisprudence or he is simply ignorant.

Or, alternatively, he is trying to fool the common Muslims by saying that Najib, if at all found guilty, should be prosecuted in accordance with Islamic law.

Hadi is probably oblivious to the fact that the major portion of global financial transactions take place through the cyber space. The cyber space communication modes are extensively relied upon to relay and receive information.

How to get the services of four witnesses in proving or disproving these allegations against Najib?

It is not that Hadi is not aware of these complexity and modernity in global financial transactions.

Ends justifying the means

Hadi is a master dramatist and a politician, without any principles. He is adept at using the language of Islam to buttress his political objectives. It is like the ends justifying the means.

He should just say that he supports Najib. We understand that it is kind of a payback for the favours Najib has bestowed on Hadi and PAS lately. Hadi knows very well that he cannot be seen to support Najib blindly; he must invent Islamic arguments in support of his friend.

PAS’s 360-degree turn in Malaysian politics came after the infamous purge of the progressives in the party leadership elections in early June. PAS has become a party that will not hesitate to back corrupt and unscrupulous politicians.

Its close association with Umno leaders, ostensibly with the idea of forming a Malay-Muslim united front in the coming general election, might well sow the seeds of its final destruction!

The humble beginnings of the party are lost in the larger game of political survival and greed for power.

It was the greed for power that drove the ulama to commit the heinous crime of marginalising its own members who had alternative ways of thinking of Islam and about relating to non-Muslims.

Lack of reforms in Muslim world

The ulama are deluded into thinking that they have monopoly of interpreting what is Islam and what is not. This is extremely dangerous; a kind of thinking that would give rise to extreme forms of sectarianism and schism of unimaginable proportion among the Muslims.

There is nothing to stop the ulama from taking the Islamic State (IS) kind of path. Unfortunately, the lack of reforms in the Muslim world, and particularly in Saudi Arabia, once abetted and condoned by the United States, has produced the most extreme forms of Islam.

The differentiation between the Sunnis from other branches of Islam has produced volatile political and social circumstances.

PAS leaders should not just read and memorise the Quran or the Hadith. They must understand the history and the current trajectory of the Islamic world. But who is going to tell the PAS leaders that they have veered from the normal and health course of history?

Islam, or any religion for that matter, is against corruption, misappropriation of public funds and abuse of power. But PAS has become different lately. It has accommodated with Umno, the very party that PAS fought against for so many decades.

Other than the purge of progressives, the 1MDB scandal has once again exposed the nefarious tendencies among the current PAS leaders. In a more particular sense, their blind support for Najib has clearly and unequivocally exposed the opportunism and infantile adventurism of the party.

It is no wonder. The more PAS sinks into the dirty quagmire of Malaysian politics, the more the prospect for the formation of new coalition seems brighter and promising.

P RAMASAMY is Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang and state assemblyperson for Perai.

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