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Nik Aziz's anti-Umno stance illogical

After considering the apparent reasons given by PAS leader Nik Aziz, it is obvious that he actually has no basis for refusing inter-party talks with Umno. If there are genuine reasons that PAS should not talk to Umno, then Nik Aziz does not know them yet. That he insists there will be no party-to-party talks under any circumstances whatsoever adds further doubt as to the credibility of his stance.

He assumes simplistically that PAS will definitely undergo a crisis and a split if it were to cooperate with Umno at this time. Although this was what happened in the 1970's, but it is over-simplistic to automatically assume that will happen again. If he had considered the issue deeper and taken account of the specifics of current issues, he would have given other reasons and not simply and summarily say that things will be repeated.

History will provide lessons but they need not be that simplistic e.g. both PAS and Umno would have learnt from their bad experience of the 1970s and therefore would strive not to repeat past mistakes, thereby affecting future expectations.

If he is afraid that inter-party talks with Umno will lead to failure just because it happened once in the past, then he should also be afraid and avoid cooperating with DAP now, since the PAS-DAP cooperation in the 1999 general election was followed by their fallout.

And 1999 is much more recent that the 1970s. PAS now is trying hard to cooperate with DAP, while refusing harder to even consider Umno seriously. Why should failure with Umno 20 years ago lead to a blackout under all circumstances, while failure with DAP only 10 years ago lead to cooperation?

If, according to Nik Aziz, inter-party talks with Umno is a betrayal of those who worked and voted for PAS, then he must also object to the Anwar strategy of having Barisan Nasional (BN) parliamentarians jumping over to Pakatan to attempt to form the next federal government.

This would also be a clear betrayal of voters and workers, the difference being that they supported BN, not PAS. Would PAS refuse to be part of a government formed by such betrayal? Would PAS insist that Anwar do it the moral (and therefore Islamic) way ie, those parliamentarians should resign, switch parties, and then re-contest the seat?

There is, however, already one betrayal now in place. By stipulating that there will be no substantive talks with Umno under any circumstances, Nik Aziz has specifically betrayed the powerful Quranic injunction of Muslim brotherhood which is located within the wider Islamic context of human brotherhood.

Nik Aziz is afraid that PAS members will strongly criticise the leadership should they talk to Umno. Well, if they are leaders, they should lead. If the leadership believes it would be a good thing, they must convince the members and lead the way. Fear of membership reaction per se should not be a reason.

If not wanting to work with Umno is due to it being ideologically secular, why is PAS working with DAP and PKR, both also ideologically secular? PAS's real reason is not the secularity of another party's ideology but something else, and this something else seems to be an illogicality.

There are no further reasons publicly stated by PAS or Nik Aziz for not agreeing to inter-party talks with Umno.

However, could the emphatic rejection of Umno publicly be merely a ploy by Nik Aziz to protect relations with PKR and DAP, for now? This is unlikely, given his long-established reputation as an upright, straight and very pious character. He meant what he said and is not into playing political games like the skilled and wily Anwar.

Nik Aziz would easily understand that it is possible to be Islamic while having an interpretation and approach to Islam that is different from PAS’. It is entirely possible that at some future point, another Islamic political party will arise in this country, with a legitimate view of Islam but different from PAS'.

Nik Aziz should reconsider his overly irrational anti-Umno stance and decide only after a cool, proper, informed and intellectual exercise with consultation or shura with the rest of the PAS leadership. Whatever PAS's next conclusion is, the stance now vis-a-vis Umno is based on its own - not other people's - line of reasoning that is clearly illogical.

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