The PAS Kelantan State Government ban on the Big Sweep Lottery ticket is turning out very sticky for the DAP which is being put under tremendous public pressure by the MCA amd Gerakan. DAP cannot order PAS around too much as it will then be capitalised by UMNO to show that PAS is subservient to DAP. However if the DAP do not pressure PAS then the MCA which has always been at the end of the stick being whacked by DAP left and right will turn the table on the DAP for once (an opportunity which will not be lost on Dr. Chua).
For the DAP the Lottery Ban in PAS Kelantan is a classic case of DiLuah Mati Mak, DiTelan Mati Bapa.
Here is a great write by Mr. Baradan Kuppusamy:
DAP pushing its luck with PAS
ANALYSIS By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY
The Big Sweep ban in Kelantan suggests a re-emergence of PAS hardliners to offset the revived Malay support in Umno but the issue is making the PAS alliance with the secular DAP in Pakatan Rakyat increasingly precarious.
THE DAP gamble in its political tie-up with PAS is straining at the seams, with PAS falling back on syariah laws to ban the sales of Big Sweep tickets in Kelantan.
Worse, PAS has also asked the other Pakatan Rakyat-ruled state governments to follow suit, claiming that gaming is morally wrong, socially unhealthy and a sin in Islam and all other religions.
This has put tremendous pressure on secularists like Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who would face a revolt in the ranks if they comply with the PAS request.
What is at issue here is how the DAP can continue its alliance with the Islamic party and advance it politically – like campaigning for the PAS candidates in the Merlimau and Kerdau by-elections – and, at the same time, defend secular rights against Islamic edicts.
Gaming, as DAP leader Karpal Singh and the MCA have said, is controlled by Federal law and not illegal nor a sin under secular laws even if most religions frown upon it.
While Karpal has been forthright in defending the secular foundations against any PAS inclination to push the Islamic card, others more politically-ambitious in the DAP are willing to close an eye.
For example, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng tried to justify the PAS action as right because the ban favours the majority over the minority. It is the same old law of the jungle – might is right – that the DAP had fought against all these years. Only Karpal is constant in speaking up and incurring the wrath of PAS leaders.
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang and son Guan Eng have not spoken up as vocally as Karpal to offer the Malaysian public a unified and determined stand against advancing Islamisation.
PAS and DAP leaders close to PAS have to understand and respect that we live by a Constitution and a body of laws passed by Parliament that allows gaming, even if Islam is the official religion of the country and syariah law, confined to Muslims, opposes gaming.
Banning the lottery in Kelantan, where the majority are Muslims, might be calculated to win for PAS the hardcore Muslim support but it leaves DAP out in the cold over how to explain and justify such an action to other Malaysians.
If PAS can do it in Kelantan and demand that Pakatan Rakyat-ruled states follow suit, what will it demand if the coalition captures Putrajaya – the Pakatan’s stated mission, however remote the chance?
Can the DAP, a small party compared to the giant PAS, or the intellectually superior PKR, be able to manage PAS and its inclination to Islamise society?
PAS is inevitably bent on returning to its pre-2004 hardliner days, when it was on the political upswing following the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and misreading the Malay support for PAS as being for Islamic theocracy.
It was a time when PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang ruled the roost unchallenged, and proposed strict Islamic solutions for society and the infamous hudud laws, like amputation of limbs for stealing and stoning to death for adultery.
The party passed the hudud laws in Kelantan and Terengganu and later accused the Federal government as being un-Islamic for refusing to implement these laws.
With the re-emergence of PAS hardliners, like Youth chief Nasrudin Hasan and others, to offset Umno’s revived support among the Malays, the DAP’s alliance with PAS has become increasingly precarious.
The lottery ban has angered small businessmen, like newspaper vendors, sundry shop owners and the disabled, who make a small profit from the sale of the tickets.
These ordinary Malaysians had looked to DAP to defend their interest, protect their secular rights and ensure religious dogmas do not rule their lives.
But the alliance with PAS is making it difficult for the DAP to carry out its dual role – support PAS politically and defend secular rights at the same time.
This has put the DAP under pressure to draw a firm line between the political support that strengthens PAS and its mission to advance syariah, and defending secular rights.
The DAP-PAS ties, in the long term, are at best a gamble.
For the DAP the Lottery Ban in PAS Kelantan is a classic case of DiLuah Mati Mak, DiTelan Mati Bapa.
Here is a great write by Mr. Baradan Kuppusamy:
DAP pushing its luck with PAS
ANALYSIS By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY
The Big Sweep ban in Kelantan suggests a re-emergence of PAS hardliners to offset the revived Malay support in Umno but the issue is making the PAS alliance with the secular DAP in Pakatan Rakyat increasingly precarious.
THE DAP gamble in its political tie-up with PAS is straining at the seams, with PAS falling back on syariah laws to ban the sales of Big Sweep tickets in Kelantan.
Worse, PAS has also asked the other Pakatan Rakyat-ruled state governments to follow suit, claiming that gaming is morally wrong, socially unhealthy and a sin in Islam and all other religions.
This has put tremendous pressure on secularists like Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, who would face a revolt in the ranks if they comply with the PAS request.
What is at issue here is how the DAP can continue its alliance with the Islamic party and advance it politically – like campaigning for the PAS candidates in the Merlimau and Kerdau by-elections – and, at the same time, defend secular rights against Islamic edicts.
Gaming, as DAP leader Karpal Singh and the MCA have said, is controlled by Federal law and not illegal nor a sin under secular laws even if most religions frown upon it.
While Karpal has been forthright in defending the secular foundations against any PAS inclination to push the Islamic card, others more politically-ambitious in the DAP are willing to close an eye.
For example, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng tried to justify the PAS action as right because the ban favours the majority over the minority. It is the same old law of the jungle – might is right – that the DAP had fought against all these years. Only Karpal is constant in speaking up and incurring the wrath of PAS leaders.
DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang and son Guan Eng have not spoken up as vocally as Karpal to offer the Malaysian public a unified and determined stand against advancing Islamisation.
PAS and DAP leaders close to PAS have to understand and respect that we live by a Constitution and a body of laws passed by Parliament that allows gaming, even if Islam is the official religion of the country and syariah law, confined to Muslims, opposes gaming.
Banning the lottery in Kelantan, where the majority are Muslims, might be calculated to win for PAS the hardcore Muslim support but it leaves DAP out in the cold over how to explain and justify such an action to other Malaysians.
If PAS can do it in Kelantan and demand that Pakatan Rakyat-ruled states follow suit, what will it demand if the coalition captures Putrajaya – the Pakatan’s stated mission, however remote the chance?
Can the DAP, a small party compared to the giant PAS, or the intellectually superior PKR, be able to manage PAS and its inclination to Islamise society?
PAS is inevitably bent on returning to its pre-2004 hardliner days, when it was on the political upswing following the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and misreading the Malay support for PAS as being for Islamic theocracy.
It was a time when PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang ruled the roost unchallenged, and proposed strict Islamic solutions for society and the infamous hudud laws, like amputation of limbs for stealing and stoning to death for adultery.
The party passed the hudud laws in Kelantan and Terengganu and later accused the Federal government as being un-Islamic for refusing to implement these laws.
With the re-emergence of PAS hardliners, like Youth chief Nasrudin Hasan and others, to offset Umno’s revived support among the Malays, the DAP’s alliance with PAS has become increasingly precarious.
The lottery ban has angered small businessmen, like newspaper vendors, sundry shop owners and the disabled, who make a small profit from the sale of the tickets.
These ordinary Malaysians had looked to DAP to defend their interest, protect their secular rights and ensure religious dogmas do not rule their lives.
But the alliance with PAS is making it difficult for the DAP to carry out its dual role – support PAS politically and defend secular rights at the same time.
This has put the DAP under pressure to draw a firm line between the political support that strengthens PAS and its mission to advance syariah, and defending secular rights.
The DAP-PAS ties, in the long term, are at best a gamble.
Not even Karpal Singh can save the DAP/PAS alliance now.
1 comment:
"Diluah mati mak, ditelan mati bapa" -- biar DAP terima padahnya. Berapa lama lagi akan parti itu mampu mengaburi mata penyokong-penyokong setianya? Lambat laun pasti pecah tembelang juga.
Perihal DAP "defend[ing] secular rights against Islamic edicts", saya tak hairan kalau Khalifah Umar ciplak (yang lebih sudu dari kuah itu) pula sendiri bakal mengeluarkan fatwa. Sekiranya PAS di Kelantan setakat mengharamkan loteri, kita tengok apakah nanti DAP di P.Pinang akan haramkan mahjong sekaligus.
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