opinion

After launching the Proton Juara in Kuala Lumpur last Friday, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir challenged PAS to put down the concept of Islamic state in writing so that 'everyone can understand their version of an Islamic state'.

PAS would be very unwise if it does not withstand the temptation and provocation by the Umno president whose ultimate fear is not an extremist PAS but a national, moderate, inclusive and centrist one.

The more advisable course of action open the PAS thus is to ignore that provocation, and to continue to position and re-position itself as a national, inclusive and centrist opposition, with fortitude, patience, prudence and justice.

PAS, for example, should continue to articulate and voice up the common and universal concerns of all Malaysians, like corruption, violation of human rights, unethical business transactions, abuses of executive powers, unemployment, inflationary pressure, rural underdevelopment, the deterioration of urban quality of life etc.

PAS should also continue to directly engage the non-Muslim and non-Malay civil society in sincere, honest and equal dialogues with the twin objectives of finding common ground and common denominators on issues affecting all Malaysians, and outbidding Umno on the national unity agenda.

Friends indeed

While PAS must not be seen to be arrogant, it must be self-confident enough to realise that many non-Muslims, although objecting in principle to an Islamic state and a change of constitutional polity, are genuinely appreciative of PAS's principled and brave position in defending their dignity.

After all, it was PAS, and for that matter, Keadilan/PRM who courageously stood up to offer solidarity with the Chinese community when it was openly insulted by Dr Mahathir as 'communist' and 'Al Ma'unah', and when Umno Youth threatened to raze the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall to the ground. Friends in need are friends indeed.

In Kelantan and Terengganu, non-Muslims and Chinese are also generally impressed by the cleaner and more honest administrations of PAS. Inter-ethnic and inter-religious harmony are preserved, if not upgraded in these two states governed by PAS. Businesses also go on as normal.

Although some non-Muslims are genuinely concerned about the prospect of an so-called Islamic state, they must also realise that given the multilateral arrangements of the Barisan Alternatif (BA), the constitutional provision as regard to the number of parliamentary seats required to change the polity, the population make-up of the country and the geographical distribution of parliamentary seats all combine to make it is impossible to set up an Islamic state in any foreseeable future.

Perhaps, PAS should also engage in more friendly and heart-to-heart dialogues with non-partisan Muslims and Malays, especially the young, cosmopolitan and urban middle-classes on the West Coast in order to understand their hopes, fears and aspirations in their legitimate quest for modernity amidst the fast-changing socio-economic and political environment.

Organic intellectuals

To position itself as national, inclusive and centrist Islamic party, PAS must strive to overcome the rural-urban and generational gaps in the Muslims/Malay community. It should endeavour to be patiently inclusive, and not to be perceived as intolerantly exclusive or self-righteously sectarian.

The influx of highly educated, dedicated and organic (in touch with the common and downtrodden) intellectuals and professionals into PAS in recent years should enable PAS to embark on this historic project of self-transformation to strike balances between faith and knowledge, utopianism and realism, theory and practice, as well as positive self-identity and magnanimous inclusiveness.

Indeed, the largest and most immediate threat to the democracy and human rights of all Malaysians and to the legitimate rights of the Chinese, Indians and other ethnic communities does not come from PAS which only commands 27 parliamentary seats out of 193, but Umno which can and does rule with the tyranny of a majority with its 72 seats.

The Umno-dominated Barisan Nasional (BN) still commands the unhealthy or even harmful two-thirds majority in the Parliament with its 148 seats.

What does this mean? It means that while PAS is unable to change the Federal Constitution, even if it wants too, in any foreseeable future, Umno and the BN can amend the Federal Constitution and any other law at will anytime.

Indeed, the tyranny of its two-thirds majority has enabled Umno and BN to change laws to the detriment of earthly democracy and secular human rights.

It means that Umno and BN present a more immediate and powerful threat to democracy and human rights. Malaysians who do not accept a merely hypothetical Islamic state but who are also frightened by the real possibility of the 'good dictatorship' of Umno and BN after the 2004 general elections must restore for themselves and others an arithmetic sense of proportion and reality.

Counter-challenges

Indeed, premising on this real possibility backed up by arithmetic proof, Malaysians should counter-challenge Dr Mahathir and Umno to put down the concept of 'good dictatorship' in writing so that everybody can understand Umno's and Dr Mahathir's ultimate vision of human beings, society and nation.

DAP could also ask Dr Mahathir and Umno to put down in writing guarantees, if any, for the existence of secular, modern and effectively mass-based and participial opposition parties; not elitist, permanent and advisory opposition, under a 'good dictatorship'.

Is there any guarantee that the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall will not be razed to the ground under the 'good dictatorship' to be established after the 2004 general elections if Umno and BN defeat PAS and BA? What about the rights of Chinese and Indians to mother-tongue education?

Will all alternative media and even critical mainstream media be closed down in the name of 'national security'? Will more independent-minded Malaysians, intellectuals and university students be detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA)?

Will more public resources be misused to selectively bailout failed companies while rural people continue to suffer underdevelopment and marginalsation, and urban Malaysians unemployment and inflation?

Will Malaysians be allowed to continue working for international media? Will there be drastic changes in foreign policy, or at least the conduct of it, if the 'good dictatorship' is established after the next general elections?

And will the 'good dictatorship' continue to abide by international norms and conventions such as the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations?

Illiberal democracy

Malaysians and our friends in the region and international community who cherish democracy, human rights and good neighbourliness must realise that while the modern, secular and democratic polity is a more desirable form of government and must be defended if and when the occasion arises, we must first, in the earthly context and circumstances of Malaysia now, contain and roll back the more immediate threat of soft-fascism and illiberal democracy.

The restoration of an arithmetic sense of proportion and political reality is thus an absolute prerequisite for any correct assessment of an anti-democratic threat, and for the strategic balancing of democratic forces.

JAMES WONG WING ON, is a former Member of Parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew , he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.