The Rise of PAS

The rise of PAS, like REFORMASI and BERSIH, happened because they fill a need. Nothing more, nothing less. The rise of PAS is not a manifestation of Muslims and Malays wanting to conquer our nation and turn it into an Islamic state. If our education system had been properly planned out, if the children of the rural Malays have been given the right education and the right opportunities to mature and earn a decent living, if those thousands upon thousands of Muslims had been sent to proper and decent educational facilities instead of to Egypt and all the other Islamic institution that taught hem to be what they are today, then, we will not have the green tidal wave that is now sweeping our nation.

It happened because the 18-year-olds were given the votes. These 18 years old were mostly Malays, Muslims, and from the rural electorates where PAS prevails. Many of these 18-year-olds attended religious schools, and PAS saw them to be potential PAS supporters and set out to recruit them to be just that - and succeeded beyond their and our wildest dreams.

Think back a few decades to the time of Tun Razak. What I remembered most about Tun Razak was that he was a prime Minister who looked after the welfare of the Malays in rural areas. Whether he did it because he wanted to help the rural Malay lead a better life, or whether he did it to ensure that Umno secure the votes of the rural Malays is debatable....but this much we know....during his time and for many decades after, Umno had a secure vote bank amongst the rural Malays.

Not anymore. After Tun Razak, I have yet to see any of our prime ministers visit the rural areas as often as Tun Razak did.

Gradually, PAS filled in the void. They capture the hearts and minds of the Malays in Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah and Perlis. ...and the rural parts of Pahang, Selangor, and Perak and in PRU15, they left no doubt in our minds that PAS has arrived when they won the most number of seats of any political party....a feat even DAP cannot equal...what more PKR and Umno.

Now...in a democracy that we pride ourselves to be...what does that mean?

: government by the people. especially : rule of the majority. : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.

The operative word there is "rule by the majority". If the green tidal wave continues its current trajectory ...we can see a time when they will earn the right to do government through the democratic process.

And that frightens many of us. Why?

The reasons are many and too complex to go into here, and I do not intend to even try. Suffice for me to say that the two leaders of PN, of which PAS is the dominant member, Muhyiddin, and Hadi, have by their words and deeds in the past, proved themselves to be treacherous, treasonous, and greedy men who stop at nothing to take political power by any means for their own vested interests...and here lies the bane of any democratic country...in a democracy, Muhyiddin and Hadi can take government when they have the majority of seats in Parliament.

In as much as it was democracy that rid us of the corrupt Umno , the treasonous Muhyiddin, and the blur Ismali Sabri, it is also democracy that made Anwar Ibrahim our Prime Minister in a Unity PH-led government. And by the same token on December 19, when a vote of confidence is called to give legitimacy to this DSAI-led PH Unity Govt, it may be democracy that will usher in PN and the Green tidal wave, into government.

Do we want this PH government to invoke the ISA or do another Ops Lallang to arrest PN politicians who, for their own selfish political agendas, are responsible for the rise of the green tide? I personally do not want that to happen, for I believe that we are beyond arbitrary arrest, arrest without trial, and putting people in jail because of their political beliefs.

Do we want to call out the Police and the Army to contain the physical spread of these Green Tidal waves that seem to be anywhere and everywhere around us? To stop them from exuberantly celebrating their massive electoral victory in Padang Serai? No, I do not want that to happen. They have earned that electoral victory and as long as they do not cause danger to human lives and properties, let them rejoice.

Do I want this PH government to use any means at its disposal to declare, somehow, that the results are null and void because of some trumped-up reasons? No, I do not...let justice prevail. In other words, if we are a democracy, we need to accept that the tidal wave is here and deal with it.

It is not us that will have to deal with this green tidal wave. We the electorates will have to wait for another PRU before we can cast our votes again. It is the government of the day that we have elected, the PH-led Unity Government that must deal with the surging green tide.

Deal with it realistically, competently, and effectively in order that we can bring those Malaysians who are now part and parcel of the green tidal wave, bring them back to the land of the living...back into our side, our camp, and into our embrace and by so doing, get them to leave the bigoted and self-serving PN.

We are indeed facing a grave crisis. The democracy that has convicted Najib and his wife, the democracy that is now going to judge the guilt or innocence of the court cluster, the democracy that has swept BN from power, ousted Mudyiddin and Ismail Sabri out of government...and the democracy that has given us this DSAI led PH Unity government....this democracy that is so strong and able to do all that I have just said it has done....is also the democracy that is fragile enough to allow PN into government dalam masa terdekat.

Such is the nature of democracy and having taken democracy to our hearts, we must learn to live with it.

Pray that this PH led Unity Government will hold together and work together to prevent PN from doing government.

Pray that the Royals who have magnificently stood together against the harm that they know rogue politicians using race and religion to gain political power for their own vested interest can inflict upon our people and our nation....and pray that they will continue to stand steadfast with us and against the green tidal wave that now threatens our values and our way of life.

And pray that DSAI will stand firm and have the wisdom and the courage to do the necessary and lead us toward the One Malaysia that we want and need.

For now, that is all we can do. Time does not allow us to do anything else.

Anything else that must be done and need to be done to contain, manage and stem the green tidal wave that is already upon us, can only be done after the vote of confidence for this Unity Govt in Parliament in December. Until then...we wait.