Permatang Pauh… and the winner is …
….PAS!
Immediately after the PRU 2008 in March, I suggested to some friends in Penang (Chinese guys who voted for the opposition) that the true political party who won was actually PAS, not PKR or DAP and definitely not the PAKATAN. They were a little confused but the Perak MBship helped them understand things a little better. My take is simple. Amongst all the political parties today, the most organized and the one that is most clear of its goal is none other than PAS. They also have quality leaders across the levels within the party, nationwide both for the state leadership as well as nationally.
PKR is overly dependent on the cult of Anwar – take him out of the equation and the PKR brand may just be deadish, DAP is a still a NATO party (even today after months of managing Penang - just listen to the debate between LGE and Dr KTK) and UMNO the largest party in the Parliament (actually UMNO has the most number of seats) is in shambles. So here comes the slow and steady PAS.
Now, why Permatang Pauh is a PAS win?
I say that PAS was instrumental in ensuring Anwars’s win especially in countering Saiful’s Quran swearing act. As I said in an earlier blog, that act is really big to Malay-Muslims. Deep inside the Malay- Muslims’ heart they still believe that the swearing is a dashat thingy but the Ulamaks have special powers in the Muslim psyche. And they managed to upturn it!
That is why Anwar owe PAS taikos big time. If you look at the PAS’ ceramah with Tok Guru seated cooly and with calm authority at the center flanked with his party stalwarts (and Anwar terperosok di belakang; Anwar actually looked like a little boy-teenager eagerly allowing the ‘adults’ to speak for him) you understand the power of the Ulamaks- a powerhouse based on religiosity – not money, not positions, not tenders or APs, not charismatic speeches and definitely not empty promises. In matters of religion, the hereafter and God a simple gentle whisper from a Tok Guru is more powerful than Anwar’s fiery speeches or the BN’s election machinery!!!
Anwar may have won the Permatang Pauh seat, but PAS just won the leadership of the Malays. My take is this. If Anwar managed to swing enough MPs to topple the BN… it may be immediate or just a little later … the PM ship goes to PAS. Now … that will be a real interesting twist in Malaysian Politics! Having a PM from a non-raced based political party with religion as its powerbase. The coming of PAS ... jeng!jeng!jeng!
Anas Zubedy
http://letusaddvalue.blogspot.com
No party can rule forever. No strongest dynasty could. No strongest country could dominate forever too. History has proven this again and again. And no religion could be in vogue without the test of time. Though religion could last longer than any dynasty and ruling pact.
ReplyDeleteI shudder at the power these Ulamaks have. It takes the power and responsibility of individual thinking in personal spiritual matters.
ReplyDeletePermatang Pauh's etc was over but the street talks are much heated. its seemed to gather greater height in penang particularly. (anas style) tirai drama tersingkir with music que: jeng!jeng!jeng!
ReplyDeleteon 26 aug, i travelled with mongolian tourists and passed by seberang jaya at 4pm. (last push for polling) they were curious about the people-packed polling station flying with flags all over. they did not u/stand why msian are excited over election rather than olympic. simply bcos they live very basic and happy life on the vast grassland, i suppose.
one funny thing is that most of the msian i came along only uttered 1 word: alantuya when they knew the group fr mongolia. i felt sad about the distorted perceptions we ppl held on. shame to tell, they beat msia with 4 olympic medals. they are patriotic to celebrate the news on the coach.
in fact, we all are great people with open hearts to welcome visitors to our home. if u asked me who won PP, definitely ppl with big hearts win ALL
"Amongst all the political parties today, the most organized and the one that is most clear of its goal is none other than PAS"
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about this, they are shouting to build an Islamic state but still are working with DAP, to get some powers. We all know DAP is against Malaysia as an Islamic country. Politics, it's dirty.
UMNO/BN is in shambles due to the leaders are too egoistic to accept other people / "experienced people" opinion
ReplyDeleteand I don't believe in PKR fights. I believe that it is merely Anwar's instrument to rise back to power.
DAP?? Simply out of my consideration altogether
So probably PAS will be the most favourable now..since there are no other choice...
BUT as far as voting for other parties, we should think on what will happen to the current bumis if this previlidge is taken out from us should other party rules. I'm quite confident that PAS won't sold out the Malays/Muslims out, but others??? Not to be racist, but this is Tanah Melayu, give us the bumis some face laa... Cannotla after tumpanging our land, now you want to be the master of the land already just because you're here so long...
Another thing, if we have faith in Allah & Rasul or we call ourselevs a Muslim, the statement of "Ulamak have so much power" or "Ulamak is so powerful" is very misleading to our aqidah. We must be very very careful in our words...
Anyway Anas, I appreciate your fresh intake in Permatang Pauh case. ;)
First of all, I don't think just because we are muslims mean that we can't criticize the Ulamaks as they are humans too. Our faith is a very personal matter only Allah will be our Judge on our aqidah.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, we malays ourselves are not the original people in Malaysia. The real bumis are people like the Negritos and other orang Asli. And not every Bumi is a muslim so I wonder how an Islamic party can represent the rights of all the different religions.
Anas, no comment on the comments aa? Aisay, miss the long talks la. This is the tough part about distance between friends.
Hey.. here's a thot how about we invite all the negritos to becaome leaders of this country and give them special previledges since we are originated from there?? ;) 1 day when we are questioned / rejected on why we want to build a masjid or sekolah agama or deprived of taking holidays for Hari Raya, Hari Raya Haji, Maulidur Rasul or Nuzul Quran, then maybe some of us can think/see things very clearly. Heh
ReplyDeleteI thot I made my point quite clear. Saying that ulamaks power is great especially "shuddering at the power of ulamak??" can be misleading to our akidah. We should be very careful on what we said/write. Who are we to question or judge whether a sumpah is acceptable or not??
I apologize if I give everybody the wrong impression. I am not at all "taksub" at any ulamak or PAS power. Like Anas said what's wrong is wrong and what's right is right. Salam. :)