NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The 12th General Election will soon be upon us. It may be a matter of time before Malaysians will again go to the polls to vote in their next government. Take it from me, though, the ‘next’ government will be the same government we have now. There will be no change. It will still be the same shit, different day maybe, but the same shit nevertheless.

And why is this? Are Malaysians really so stupid? You mean to say Malaysians are so gullible? Are you suggesting that Malaysians are gluttons for punishment? Not that way at all really. It’s just that Malaysians have no choice in the matter. If they do not vote the present government back into office then which party do they choose instead?

Barisan Nasional is a coalition of 14 political parties representing every minority interest. Sure, they do have ethnic ‘problems’. But these problems are nothing but a storm in a teacup. Before the ‘outbreak’ of any ‘racial strife’, the other partners in the ruling coalition are told about it beforehand. This is merely shadow play or wayang kulit for the benefit of the gullible and impressionable members. The party needs to ‘prove’ that their race is constantly under threat from the other races and they need to demonstrate that the party is constantly ‘defending’ the rights of their race.

That’s how the game is played and they all play it for the benefit of their in-house audience. So no one loses any sleep over the matter or gets hot and bothered around the collar. It is part of the drama that must be played out year in and year out so that each respective race understands that we live in dangerous times and without their party there would be ethnic cleansing. Phew.....thank God for our party. If not, we would all have been finished long before this. Yes, and we all live happily ever after.

The opposition does not have a coalition like Barisan Nasional. The opposition is an ‘understanding’ of three fragmented parties that have nothing in common save their hatred for the ruling coalition. In that sense they are united; united by hate to be exact. Even a unity of love breaks up and ends in divorce. How well can a unity of hate fare?

You know what they say about trying to save a drowning man don’t you? The desperate one grabs the other and they both go under. Even if you are a superb swimmer you must be very careful about trying to save a drowning man. You must first punch the drowning man and render him unconscious. Then grab him from behind, never from the front. And, if you yourself are struggling to stay afloat, then never try to save a drowning man because you will only end up pulling each other down.

And that is currently the state of the three opposition parties. It is a case of one drowning man trying to save another drowning man. They are all going to go to a watery grave. The three opposition parties have absolutely nothing in common, save, as I said, their hatred for the ruling coalition. This is certainly not enough to unite them into one coalition. Worse still, it is also not enough to convince the voters to vote for them.

There are many things standing in the way of opposition unity. But let us focus on just one, the mother of all problems, the Islamic State issue. This probably removes more than half the problem if this one issue can be resolved. All the other issues could be easily solved if this one issue is settled. In fact, many of the other issues could even be self-solving if this one issue can be addressed.

Some PAS leaders say that upholding Islam and propagating the setting up of an Islamic State is the prime objective of the party. When pointed out that the Islamic State agenda does not go down well with the voters, even amongst Muslim voters, so this may hinder PAS in the election, they said that they don’t care. Their objective, they argue, is not to win elections but to fight for Islam. Okay, I have no problem with that if this is the objective. But then PAS should declare this to the voters. PAS should tell the voters that it is not interested in winning elections but only to fight for Islam. Then let the voters decide whether to give them their vote or not. But if the opposite holds true, then PAS should take more interest in the voters’ needs and sentiments.

The voters should not be cheated. PAS is an Islamic party and an Islamic party, above all, should be even more concerned about telling the voters the truth. The voters should not be lied to. Tell them the truth and let them decide for themselves whether they want to buy what PAS is selling. If not, then never mind; vote Barisan Nasional then. But if they choose PAS then they do so with their eyes wide open and with no misconception about what PAS is and what it stands for.

And why do I aim this at PAS and not DAP, the other kingpin in the opposition? This is because PAS, and not DAP, would be the alternative to Umno. DAP can never be that replacement to Umno. PAS would have to be it. So it is important how the voters perceive PAS while it does not matter too much what kind of party DAP is viewed as. It is clear what DAP is and there is no misconception here.

Awhile back, I wrote that Islam and democracy are not compatible. Many jumped on me and accused me of insulting Islam. I was not insulting Islam. I was not even stating my own opinion. I was making a statement of fact. If I were to write that most of the non-Muslim countries in the west are well-developed while most of the Muslim countries are backward, and if not for the oil then all the Muslim countries would be undeveloped, would this be insulting Islam? It is not even my personal opinion but a fact which everyone knows.

They talk about bringing back the Islamic system or form of government that was introduced during the time of the Prophet and the four Caliphs that followed. I pointed out that during that era they did not have general elections, and if the Prophet and the four Caliphs had to win elections to become leaders, then there is no way they would be running the country. Two articles ago I wrote about the history of the early days of Islam and the turmoil it went through and yet again I was accused of insulting Islam. Well, today’s article is not about Islam. It is about the general elections, about the opposition parties making headway in the general elections, and about the perception of the voters of PAS, the ‘leader’ of the opposition.

Dr Kalim Siddiqui was an Islamic scholar and Muslim revolutionary who was born in British India in 1933 and died in South Africa in 1996. In 1992, he set up the Muslim Parliament of Britain. He is the author of numerous books on the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic State. I will not go through his biography which will require a whole book. Those who are interested in his works can look up his many books and theses such as In Pursuit of the Power of Islam; Conflict, Crisis and War in Pakistan; Issues in the Islamic Movement 1982-83; Stages of Islamic Revolution; Functions of International Conflict: a Socio-Economic Study of Pakistan; Towards a New Destiny; Beyond the Muslim Nation-States; The State of the Muslim Word Today; The Islamic Revolution: achievements, obstacles and goals; and many, many more.

Dr Kalim is a staunch believer and propagator of an Islamic State and he does not believe this can be achieved through western-style general elections but only through an Islamic Revolution a la Iran. Elections, as far as Dr Kalim is concerned, only helps put unsuitable leaders into power, basically because the system can be rigged in favour of certain people. You need an Islamic Revolution to change the system and to replace the un-Islamic leaders with Islamic ones. And ‘Islamic leader’ does not just mean one who professes the Islamic religion but one who leads a proper life of a Muslim.

“For nearly 1,300 years, from the beginning of Banu Umaiyyah’s rule in 661 to the abolition of the Uthmaniyyah Khalifah (Ottoman Empire) in 1924, the political power of Islam was gradually corrupted and exercised by dynastic rulers,” said Dr Kalim. “Eventually, the process of moral decline inaugurated by Banu Umaiyyah reached a stage where the political power exercised by Muslim rulers was little different from the political power of non-Muslim rulers.”

“The creation of Pakistan had been an ‘Islamic Revolution’, except that it had not been led by the setting up of an Islamic State. Its only outcome was the setting up of a secular Muslim nation-State whose leadership was largely corrupt, politically subservient to the west, and incompetent to boot.”

“It is not possible to establish Islamic States, or to develop an Islamic civilisation, on the basis of the nation-States created from the bowels of colonisation. The nation-States would have to be dismantled and the political map of the ummah redrawn.”

According to Dr Kalim, the Iran Revolution was the closest thing to the creation of an Islamic State if not for the fact that Iran regarded it as a Shi‘ate Revolution rather than an Islamic Revolution.

If we go by what Dr Kalim believes, then Malaysia is not an Islamic State. Malaysia does not have the ingredients for the setting up of an Islamic State. Malaysia practices a western-style election system which is not compatible to Islam. To succeed in setting up an Islamic State, we need to abolish the general elections and instead embark on an Islamic Revolution.

But this is not what PAS is doing. PAS is not propagating a revolution, Islamic or otherwise. PAS actively participates in the general elections and is trying to meet its goals through winning enough seats in the general election. But Dr Kalim said that not only is this not Islamic, but it cannot be done.

So what does PAS have to say about this? Does PAS share these views or does it have another and opposite view? It owes the voters an explanation, an honest explanation. How is it going to do what they say cannot be done?

Furthermore, what would PAS do about the current political and administrative system if it manages to win enough seats to form the government? Would it abolish Parliament and the Westminster system in favour of a Caliphate system? According to Shaykh Abdalqadir as-Sufi in his book The Return of the Khalifate, “The Khalifate is not only fundamental to Islam, it is the necessary foundation of its power.”

The Shaykh calls for the reintroduction of Islamic laws and defends slavery. “Slavery, too, must be understood in the Islamic perspective. Slavery is an inescapable and constant part of the human situation. Islam does not abolish it, nowhere is it decreed. The fact is that a significant part of Islamic Law (one quarter of Al-Muwatta) deals with its strict laws. Most importantly, Islam does not consider slavery a doom.”

The Shaykh argues that the banking system must be demolished. “Lastly, the kafir society’s social foundations rest on the institution of usury, called banking, which with its stock exchanges and worthless paper money has enslaved the whole world under the control of a tiny oligarchy of criminal adventurers, the great banker dynasties.”

PAS leaders seem at a loss in offering examples of viable Islamic States, either in existence or in the past. They do not regard Iran, Pakistan or Saudi Arabia as good examples or genuine Islamic States. When asked to define what a ‘proper’ Islamic State should look like, the impression we get is that the Islamic State is merely an ideal, a theoretical system that has yet to emerge in the true sense of the word. One always goes away with the feeling that PAS is equally confused as to what constitutes an Islamic State.

Should Malaysia Today invite the PAS leaders to come forward and allow them to explain it themselves? Everyone is entitled to a fair trial. PAS too should be allowed to tell us what their plans are and how they plan to achieve them. If we like what we hear, then PAS might get our support in the coming general election. But at least we will know for sure what we are getting ourselves into by supporting PAS. And if we support PAS it will only be because we agree with them and are doing so with both eyes wide open and not because we were sold a cow when we thought we were buying a horse.

Over to you PAS! The ball is now at your feet. You want our support, then tell us what it is we are supporting. And the truth please! Malaysia Today would be very willing to organise a dialogue session with PAS for the benefit of any of our readers who are concerned enough about this country’s future and would like to hear what PAS’ plans are and how this would dovetail with our own idea of what ‘future’ is supposed to look like. Can PAS respond to this? And I am even generous enough to allow PAS to pay for the whole event (and don’t forget the Satay).