Nik Nazmi: 'Great divide' led to Pakatan's downfall

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PKR Youth chief Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has attributed the ‘death’ of Pakatan Rakyat to a "great divide" between secular and religious interests.

 

"It (Pakatan) eventually came apart because we could not address the growing chasm between the secular and religious sides of Malaysia’s polity. 

 

"What befell the alliance was not induced by race and religion; rather it was the inability to look past strict ideologies and work on a common ground. 

 

"There is now, as I said, a great divide encompassing factors which are individualistic rather than whole," he said in a speech at Interculturadelaide, a public policy summit in Australia last week.

 

This divide, he said, is also reflected in Malaysia's current society.

 

"Our leaders, who are privately westernised but hypocritical, have failed to cope with the growing diversity in thought and attitude within the Malay-Muslim community. 

 

"This was instead outsourced entirely to Malaysia’s religious bureaucracy. Authentic moderate religious voices are marginalised. 

 

"The results have been disastrous: the secular component of the society has been largely ignored, while extreme religious rhetoric has been allowed to dominate the mainstream," he explained.

 

As a result, Nik Nazmi, who is also Seri Setia state assemblyperson, said the focus among Muslims have increasingly focussed on narrow definitions of syariah such as hudud.

 

"The developing concept of higher objectives of the syariah (maqasid syariah) is not being given enough attention. 

 

"Meanwhile the rest of the people are told to buck up and face the calamity of the government’s creation on their own," he said.

 

Reforms required

Moving forward, Nik Nazmi said reforms are needed to bridge this divide.

 

"They are no easy answers, but I think we can lay the building blocks for this. 

 

"Progressive Malaysians need to forge a movement for change encompassing political parties, civil society, faith groups and grassroots organisations," he asserted.

 

As for Pakatan, Nik Nazmi said despite its demise, it had proven to be a successful experiment.

 

"Pakatan Rakyat, for all its flaws, will go down in history as one of Malaysia’s most successful experiments thus far in multiracial opposition politics. 

 

"No one ever thought it would last as long as it did," he said.

 



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