Pakatan will move forward but on PAS’s terms

Pakatan will move forward but on PAS’s terms

By Adib Zalkapli

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 26 — The high turnout at the Permatang Pasir by-election yesterday and PAS’s convincing victory has only strengthened the Islamist party’s position in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition.

It was the latest example that for PR to move forward, it has to be on PAS’s terms.

Yesterday, some 47 per cent of the 20,350 voters in the Penang state constituency voters came out to make Mohd Salleh Man the new Permatang Pasir assemblyman.

Compare this to the Penanti by-election in late May where PKR only attracted 39 per cent — despite weekend polling — of some 15,000 voters to elect the new Deputy Chief Minister of Penang Mansor Othman.

The two results confirmed the suspicion of many, even among PKR leaders, that the multi-racial party has a long way to go in developing a strong support base in Malay areas.

It is true that Umno’s refusal to contest in Penanti had partly caused the low turnout, but the difference is just too huge for it to be caused by the Malay nationalist party alone.

It was during the Penanti campaign also that state PAS leaders demanded to contest the seat after it was vacated by Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin who had earlier quit his government post in a very suspicious manner, a decision described by many including those in state PAS as irresponsible.

Local grassroots leaders even threatened to boycott the campaign to show PAS’s strength in the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency and yesterday’s high turnout proved that PAS does have strong machinery.

And the attempts by certain party leaders to promote stricter implementation of Islamic laws might have made many people within PR unhappy fearing that the coalition would lose the support of the non-Muslims, but that did not happen yesterday.

Just one day before polling Selangor PAS chief and the state executive councillor Datuk Hassan Ali announced that mosque officials will be empowered to arrest Muslims caught consuming alcohol, thus risking the support of more than 5,000 non-Muslim voters in Permatang Pasir.

But the results did not indicate any major shift of support from PAS and shows almost a similar pattern as in March 2008.

Clearly, making the right noise, acceptable to the so-called liberals from the Malaysian middle class does not translate into votes.

PAS has the undisputed ability to mobilise supporters for street protests, public rallies and as seen yesterday, to attract the election-fatigued voters of Permatang Pasir on a weekday.

source : malaysianinsider.net

Hassan Ali has DAP caught between a rock and a harder place

By Neville Spykerman

SHAH ALAM, Aug 26 — Datuk Dr Hassan Ali’s decision to empower mosque officials to arrest Muslims caught drinking or even selling alcohol is putting their Pakatan Rakyat (PR) partners, particularly the secular DAP, in a spot.

The executive councillor in charge of Islamic affairs said two days ago imans and bilals would be allowed to arrest and carry out raids at convenience stores under the Selangor Criminal Syariah Enactment 1995.

The state Pas commissioner’s announcement came as a surprise to his PR partners because the dust has barely settled over his call to ban the sale of beer in Muslim majority areas.

The issue was finally settled only after the mentri besar called on convenience stores in Muslim majority areas to practice self regulation.

However the controversial call was used by Barisan Nasional (BN) to lure non-Muslims during campaigning in the Permatang Pasir by-election.

A DAP MP who chose to remain anonymous said Hassan’s latest decision is going to hurt the party and PR as a whole.

He said DAP was caught between a rock and a very hard place.

“To slam Hassan’s decision would open ourselves to criticisms that we are anti-Islam, which we are not, but to remain silent would attract attacks that we are not fighting for people’s fundamental rights.”

His exco colleague Ean Yong Hian Wah also confirmed yesterday that Hassan’s call was a unilateral decision which he did not discuss at the weekly exco meetings.

“We will discuss the matter during the Exco meeting tomorrow.” Said the state DAP chairman yesterday.

Klang MP Charles Santiago said everybody respected the fact that Muslims should not consume alcohol but he pointed out that Hassan’s move would hurt Malaysia’s image of being a progressive country.

“Page one of the Financial Times today is about Malaysia canning a woman who was caught consuming alcohol and now we have moral policing in Selangor.”

He said the fact that mosques officials can also arrest Muslims selling, serving and displaying alcohol is going to cause economic hardship to the community.

“Muslims in the services, food and beverage industries which serve alcohol are now caught in a dilemma.”

Santiago said Hassan should have studied the move and consulted his PR colleagues before making the decision.

Selangor Speaker Teng Chang Khim said Hassan was digging his own political grave and repeating history.

“His increasing hard line will alarm non-Muslims who will link the move to other fundamental policies that could be implemented in the future.”

In 1999, PAS managed to retain Kelantan and capture the state of Terengganu from Barisan National (BN).

“They became snobbish and arrogant with success and started suggesting to impose many fundamentalist policies, which resulted in the 2004 elections debacle where they lost the state.”

source : malaysianinsider.net

Cool response to Hasan's proposal

2009/08/26

By V. Shankar Ganesh, Nadia Badarudin, Anis Ibrahim and T.N. Alagesh

SHAH ALAM: Pas state commissioner and state executive councillor Datuk Dr Hasan Ali is "digging his own grave in politics" following his recent announcement empowering mosque officials to detain Muslims who drink alcohol in the state.

State speaker and DAP assemblyman for Sungai Pinang Teng Chang Khim said people would view Hasan's move as a "fundamentalist" policy.

"I don't want to interfere in Muslim affairs but Hasan seems to think that he speaks for all Muslims," he said when asked to comment on Hasan's announcement on Monday.

Hasan, who is in charge of Muslim Affairs, Malay Customs, Infrastructure and Public Amenities, had said the move was provided for under the Selangor Syariah Criminal Enactment 1995.

According to Section 18 of the enactment, Muslims can be fined up to RM3,000, jailed up to two years or sentenced to both, for drinking in public.

Muslims who make, sell, offer to sell, display, possess or buy any alcoholic drinks can be fined up to RM5,000, jailed for three years or both.

Teng said Pas in the state was repeating what the party did in Terengganu, where it lost the state to Barisan Nasional in 2004.

"Pas is arrogant and snobbish by suggesting fundamentalist values just like what they did between 1999 and 2004, which eventually led them to lose the state."

Meanwhile, state executive councillor and Parti Keadilan Rakyat representative Yaakob Sapari said the Selangor Syariah enactment had always provided for mosque officials to be empowered to arrest Muslim offenders.

Mosque officials had been given such powers even when the Barisan Nasional ruled the state.

"There is nothing new in this. The enactment gives such powers but it must be used wisely and there should not be any abuse of power."

Yaakob said their appointment letters were valid for only a year and had to be renewed yearly.

Although mosque officials had been given such powers previously, they were never used as there were concerns of abuse of power.

PKR's Sri Muda assemblyman Shuhaimi Shafiei said although he supported Hasan's move, the latter should have discussed it in the state executive council first.

"He should have done it with the Pakatan Rakyat spirit in mind so as to avoid any problems."

In Alor Star, the Pas-led Kedah government said it had no plans to deputise mosque officials to catch Muslims who consumed alcohol.

State Islamic Religion, Education and Co-operative Development Committee chairman Datuk Mohamed Taulan Mat Rasul, however, said 130 people would soon be appointed to help check immoral activities among Muslims in the state.

"We have no plans to emulate the Selangor government but we would be appointing special officers to check against moral decadence among Muslims," he said when contacted in Mecca, where he is performing the umrah.

In Kuantan, Pahang Religious Affairs committee chairman Datuk Mohd Sahfri Abdul Aziz said the state government was in favour of the move but said the legal aspect needed to be ironed out carefully.

"We have considered the idea but it is still in the discussion stage and the matter has not been proposed to the state assembly.

"We feel it will help to rope in mosque officials to carry out this operations but we have to consider the matter very carefully to avoid problems and confusion."

In Johor Baru, the state's religious committee chairman Zainal Abidin Osman said Johor already had an existing mechanism to deal with the issue.

"Officers from the Johor Islamic Religious Department already carry out regular checks and raids on nightspots to take action against Muslims who consume alcohol.

"In fact, our operations are carried out in the presence of the police, to ensure that our raids comply with the law.

"The department's officers are already fully trained, so there is no need for mosque officials in Johor to conduct these operations."

source : www.nst.com.my