Masked attack on the Constitution

This is why non-Muslims have responded vociferously to the Islamic State Document unveiled by Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS). Although PAS has made much of the fact that the document was the result of intense discussion and deliberation for two years inside and outside the party, it is clear that it has paid no heed to the sensitivities of non-Muslims. The groundswell of non- Muslim objections, whatever their political allegiance or religious affiliation, indicates that they refuse to be ignored in any attempt to re-make the future of Malaysia. Nor do rightthinking Malay realists.

Despite the seemingly high moral ground it seeks to occupy, PAS is profoundly expedient when it comes to political power. It will strike alliances with any party that will increase its influence, as attested by its links with Keadilan, Parti Rakyat and DAP. The document is another instance of the political Machiavellianism that PAS is so good at. As PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang has admitted, the blueprint is above all a polls ploy. In its attempts not to scare the non-Muslim voters, the document employs the language of democracy.

But the strident objections from non-Muslims show that they have not allowed neither this rhetoric on rights, nor Hadi's disclaimer that PAS is not establishing a theocracy, to pull the wool over their eyes. The document has been left deliberately vague, full of generalities and lacking in detail to make it malleable for the slick tongues of its demagogues, except for its version of hudud, its ultimate and paramount aim. To paraphrase Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, when they use a word, it means just what they choose it to mean. They have been good at interpreting the Quran to mean what they want it to mean.

What it means is that any state shaped in accordance with the PAS version of Islam will lead to radical changes in the constitutional framework. And what would hudud mean if not a theocracy? Which is why every Malaysian who subscribes to the social contract struck by our founding fathers 46 years ago must strike hard against the PAS attempt to throw it out and replace it with their own version.

-- New Straits Times, Kuala Lumpur