Malaysiakini

's exclusive ' PAS' Islamic state memo a bomb, say sources ' was interesting reading. Sadly, it was also worrying and terrifying.

There is first of all the presumption that only all that is found in the Quran and the Hadith should make their way to the memo. That in itself is not so much the problem. The least I would expect of them is to be honest with themselves on this and I do not expect that they owe me a life so as to compromise their faith, belief and their cause. Therefore, I would take the document as an unadulterated reading of the aims of the authors, the ulama council (religious scholars).

The bigger worry now is the "moderate" politicians within PAS who on the one hand see subordinating themselves to the ulama council as a religious duty, yet who care for the realities of this world we live in and want to see a document that would be kosher in the eyes of non-Muslims. The presumption here being that as non-Muslims and non-believers, we would not be capable of understanding what is said in the document.

So maybe what is needed is a document in the original language of the Prophet which would weigh over everything else and a translated one for the masses. One for the Malay Muslims who would be in sympathy with and who would obligingly submit himself to the original document, except that he may not understand Arabic and another for the non-Muslims for whom a spin would be required.

There is of course the final defence of the ulama's position. "If you are not a believer, you cannot possibly understand the document." As such whatever your argument the ulama's position holds. And to the Muslims who may have a problem with the application of the articles of this document, the ulama's defence would be that they are more learned and knowledgeable in the matters of the Quran and the Hadith as all their lives that is all that they have been reading and nothing else... and I have to acknowledge that they do in fact know more of the Quran and the Hadith. But I cannot accept that they necessarily understand it any better than I do as a non-Muslim. What more a learned Muslim who may not have gone to any one of those Pakistani madrassahs!

From the malaysiakini report, it would seem that the PAS ulama council view of the world is only what they see and what they know. Their idea of a pious Muslim uses a measure that not necessarily jibes with a measure that I would use. So how is it that there would be cohesion of the "Muslims' obligation to do right by their non-Muslim subjects if to do so might compromise their Muslim convictions? I certainly would not wish for such compromises on my behalf.

Malaysiakini

's report states that in the introduction the memo reiterates PAS' political policy respected the diversity of culture, ethics, race and religion in Malaysia. That would seem like as if they are playing with words here. On the one hand, to the Muslim Malays they say that they are an Islamic party, there to uphold and institute the rule of the religion. Yet it would seem like where compromises may have to be made that may undermine the tenets of the religion, PAS the political party is fronted as nothing more than a political party that is willing to commit to spin, subterfuge, deceit and whatever else just so they will get the non-Malays to vote, if not PAS, at least Keadilan, who they most definitely have in their pocket.

Indeed I have far less regard to those sources from within PAS quoted by malaysiakini 's report who seem to worry that the memo in its present form might not be so non-Muslim friendly. On the one hand, they feel obliged and willingly submit themselves totally to the PAS ulama council who it would seem sets the policies and the programmes for PAS. Just because they now see the need for being user-friendly to the non-Muslim community, they want to dress up the memo and put a spin into it so that the next general elections will not be a disaster for them.

Considering the memo cannot be anything more than a cut-and-paste job that does not require a rocket scientist to think it out for them, its delay as it is and a possible further delay seems to suggest that it is more of a politically opportunistic document rather than one that is sanctified by any holy scriptures. I can imagine all the debate and thought that has gone through trying to deliver a seemingly Islamic document that can reach out to the non-Muslims as well. And now, PAS' political pundits see that all that wrangling was still not good enough and spin is now needed.

I just hope PAS will be able to call a spade a spade and nothing else so we know. We hope, Keadilan will be able to come out of its shell and make a statement about this. I for one know condemning this memo is not going to send anyone to hell. Finally I hope some of those writers who have turned out to be PAS apologists will not try to be too clever to suggest anything more or less than the ulamas' intentions when they try to get the message across to us, the non-Muslims.