Is Islamic Party Key to Anwar Gaining Power?
Some interesting analysis and opinion on Anwar Ibrahim’s strategy to gain power in Malaysia from Kazi Mahmood. Keep in mind that Mahmood has a distinct perspective on the politics he is covering. His long bio page includes this rather unique characterization of his focus:
His expertise today is concentrated on analyzing the situation in the Islamic world, and on the impact of the US led war on terror, which he calls a war against Islam instead. He believes there is a clash of civilizations that is taking shape with the US insistence to interfere in the affairs of the Islamic world. World Futures on line or WFOL as he calls it has been instituted to counter the lies which the US is spreading about Islam.
So keep that in mind while reading the following analysis. But it is important to try and understand the role that Islamic parties might play in bringing Anwar to power and what they will expect as part of that coalition.
Mahmood argues that Anwar’s inability to consider the wishes of Muslims has undermined his ability to gain a majority:
While the BN were feeling the heat of the opposition campaign to dislodge it from power after more than 50 years of rule, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) were also taken by a storm that shocked the supporters of the PKR and of the Democratic Action Party (DAP). The Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) was being courted by the Umno and offers were being made to create a new ‘Islamic’ alliance in the country to prevent the loss of Malay-Muslim political power.
The PAS was not in agreement with Anwar’s original plans for take over. The leaders of the Islamic party certainly knew how the former jail bird planned to arrest power from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi but the glitches that existed in the plan put them off. The fact that most of the MP’s willing to jump ship from the BN to join the PR were non-Muslims would have created a situation of great unrest in the country among Malays-Muslims. The Muslims would not want a regime headed by a Malay but run by non-Muslims in general. The number of MP’s of Islamic faith within the PR became an important question that Anwar could not tackle.
The September 16 date clashed with dates that are important in the Islamic calender, such as the Nuzul Quraan. The Muslims in Semenanjung Malaysia felt Anwar was being ’sarcastic’ and were showing ‘disrespect’ to the Muslims by repeatedly calling for a change of regime in Malaysia on that fatal day for the opposition grouping. The PKR failed to rally the majority of MP’s to take power based on the predictions and the landmark date set by Anwar Ibrahim himself.
The month of Ramadan in Malaysia is not the same as those in Afghanistan or Iraq and Somalia where war is still ravaging the countries and disturbing the fasting month of the Muslims. It is a peaceful, joyful and enriching month with prayers and recitations across the Muslim community in Malaysia. Setting the target date to take power by overthrowing the ruling regime – a Malay regime by all means – was a mistake by Anwar.
He gave more importance to the date when Sabah and Sarawak effectively joined Malaya to form Malaysia and in the process offended many Muslims who would have otherwise supported his plans to throw Umno out of power. The date could have differed from the September 16th date says critics of Anwar Ibrahim who added that it might have been different had Anwar waited patiently for his time to make a breakthrough.
The relationship between Anwar and PAS has been covered here before, but it continues to bear watching. His impatience seems to have prevented him from solidifying his alliance with the Islamic Party, or using it to his advantage, but it is likely if he is to gain a majority this will change.
The question then becomes: what will PAS and other Islamicists demand in order to join that coalition?
