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PAS-Umno union dictates early transition of power

COMMENT | The boisterous crowd that packed the entire Putra World Trade Center building to the brim to witness the formalisation of political co-operation between PAS and Umno has certainly created impressive visual impact. 

But in reality, this is a hollow union of sheer opportunism by reckless and unprincipled political adventurers to grab power by exploiting to the hilt the racist sentiment and religious bigotry of the Malay electorate.

PAS is an Islamic party led and controlled with an iron fist by its leader Abdul Hadi Awang who turned his back on the party’s puritanical Islamic principles almost the moment its much-revered spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat passed away in 2015.

Since then, he has openly shown himself to be an unmitigated racist as exemplified by his repeated declaration that non-Malay Muslims must be barred from participating in the leadership of the country.

Further, he and his party have also been engrossed in allegations of amassing millions of illicit funds from Umno, where a specific sum of RM90 million is the subject of investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Decadence of PAS

Thus, PAS is doubling its role as advocator of a theocratic Islamic state with its newly acquired worldly pursuits of a racist and corrupt nature. The latter violates fundamental Islamic teachings and the party’s current embrace of Umno would have incurred the wrath of the late Nik Aziz, who had time and again vehemently rejected any form of co-operation with the racist and corrupt Umno.

As for PAS’ counterpart Umno, its six-decade-old political hegemony has just collapsed under a mountain of corruption, reputedly the most spectacular kleptocratic case the world has ever seen.

Umno had thrived all these years on its racist ideology ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) which in turn had bred unbridled corruption and abuse of power, which finally brought the juggernaut to its knees when the country edged near a failed state.

And Umno’s top leaders former premier Najib Abdul Razak and current party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and other party leaders are now facing multiple corruption prosecutions, which are armed with iron-clad evidence.

To these desperate Umno leaders, beating the current Pakatan Harapan coalition government in the next election is their only lifeline. To Hadi and his party cohorts, the chance to rule the country through an unprecedented PAS-Umno union is just too tempting to forego.

This is particularly so when these two parties had individually commanded a third of Malay support in the last election when they fought against each other, and their combined efforts in recent by-elections have shown its formidable potency to conquer new electoral territories through playing their racial-religious cards.

Unholy union

Hence, the PAS-Umno marriage of convenience, which joins worshippers of god with worshippers of money.

But what can be a worse nightmare than seeing Malaysia turned into a kleptocratic theocracy - a country run by a coalition of kleptocrats and Islamic fundamentalists?

Assuming such a coalition wins the election, wouldn’t we be witnessing the mass exodus of foreign and domestic capital and investors, massive brain drain, and drastic recession, leaving the country in destitution?

However, despite the absurdity and sure-fire disaster of such an unpalatable combination to run a nation in today’s competitive world, the duo’s electoral prowess is not to be underestimated.

As shown in recent by-election results, the Umno-PAS co-operation has made significant encroachment into Harapan’s electoral base – among both the Malay electorate and the non-Malay electorate.

If the status quo of the current political scenario continues, it is not unthinkable that Pakatan Harapan might just lose the grip on power come next general election.

This is a reflection on the failure of the Mahathir-led Harapan leadership to capitalise on its newly acquired governing power to bring forth the New Malaysia, causing disillusionment all round.

Power transition imperative

Specifically, Harapan has failed on both fronts – its ideological war to de-brainwash the deeply ingrained racist ideology of the Malay masses, and the failure to kick-start the economy through bold reforms.

The former strategy would have unarmed Umno-PAS’ lethal weapons of race and religion, while the latter would have appeased the angry masses suffering under the yoke of increasing economic hardship.

Mahathir’s pre-occupation with his personal conniving politics has obscured the big picture and caused dissension and dangerous intrigues within the coalition.

His inherent racism and autocratic ruling style make him a complete misfit to lead the crusade to transform the country through sweeping reforms, of which battling and removing the shackles of racism form the core.

Harapan is left with only three and a half years to achieve the above crucial objectives before facing judgement of the electorate again, and it should waste no time to fulfil its solemn pledge to let reformasi founder and leader Anwar Ibrahim take over the helm so that he could have sufficient time to bring forth the New Malaysia before judgement day.


KIM QUEK is the author of the banned book The March to Putrajaya, and best seller Where to, Malaysia?

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.


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