Stop prevaricating, PRM and Keadilan!
In so making the call, PRM places more importance in BA's facade of unity to maximise its electoral chances than the issue of the Islamic state, come 2004.
Dr Syed Husin Ali does not get it that the issue of Islamic state is important to the people and needs to be resolved now instead of after 2004.
PAS and DAP might be in a shouting match but at least they are honest and transparent about their respective stands based on principles rather than just PRM's principle of BA's electoral success being more important than anything else.
In this respect, Parti Keadilan Nasional's refusal to take a position in the PAS-DAP dispute puts it in the same category as PRM's and augurs well for their merger plans because of their common approach - postpone the differences, no matter how important and real, maintain the facade of unity until the BA defeats the BN.
I say that this is not a principled approach because it implies duping the electorate into voting for the BA thinking that all is well when all is not well and perhaps having to face changes in the entire political structure after a BA victory, changes that are not contemplated at the time they cast their votes in favour of BA.
According to a report in The Star on July 6, PAS Deputy President Abdul Hadi Awang had said that his party did not accept DAP and PRM's policies and vice versa, but like dogs in the village "would unite the chase off other dogs which intrude to the village", namely the common enemy, Barisan Nasional.
From Hadi's statement, two inferences may reasonably be drawn:
1) Upon the common enemy (BN) being vanquished in electoral defeat, the 'dogs' in the BA village, having internal irreconcilable ideological differences, can then turn on against each other and slug it out, with the stronger top dog then determining if the Islamic state is to be shelved, watered down or immediately realised.
2) The fact that Hadi explicitly mentioned that PAS's Islamic state policies were opposed to DAP and PRM's without mention of Keadilan's implied that according to PAS' perception, Keadilan's agenda was likely to be similar or consistent to PAS' vision of theocratic state - despite Keadilan openly professing to a just and democratic society as its mission (unless Keadilan meant it to mean a just and democratic society based on Islamic way of life and from an Islamic state's point of view, as PAS). It explains why Keadilan has been prevaricating and not taking a stand in this dispute.
The fact remains that this is the first time Malaysians hear of Hadi's position and its natural and probable consequences - as above - that are not contemplated. The duplicity implicated in the BA manifesto lies in it being a masterpiece of open-ended principles that can fit any of the conflicting ideologies to purchase time and a semblance of unity until after the defeat of the common enemy when the conflicts may then be allowed to surface at the electorate's expense.
As it is not a manifesto that is based on the bedrock of clear and certain principles beyond a touch of duplicity on the electorate, the BA forfeits its moral and political vantage position to assail the BN on grounds of duplicity and lack of transparency.
This is especially so when DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang made it clear that DAP and the PAS taking cudgel over the Islamic state issue was not fomented by the BN or its controlled newspapers.
Come on, Keadilan and PRM, do not hide under secrecy of high-level leadership talks to smooth over the conflict - the public wants to know where you clearly stand on principles in respect to this issue? Surely this is as important an issue as your common opposition against the BN?
