KUALA LUMPUR – Parti Islam SeMalaysia aims to woo more non-Muslims by the next general election due in four years, but analysts see this as a tall order for the party, given its deeply conservative stance.
PAS also retained control of Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah in legislative assembly polls in August 2023. “PAS must win over non-Muslims in GE16,” its president Abdul Hadi Awang exhorted at the party’s annual congress on Oct 20. “In fact, we will continue to preserve freedom of religion and ensure justice, as enshrined under the federal Constitution.”PAS won just 3 per cent of the non-Malay vote in an October by-election in Pahang, noted Dr Mazlan Ali, senior lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia .
A housewife from Kuala Lumpur, who wanted to be known only as Madam Liow, said she feels offended whenever PAS refers to non-Muslims as “kafir”. But a PAS insider close to the leadership acknowledged that election results since November 2022 have showed that the party has failed to win over the non-Malay voters. “This is the reality, due to the propaganda spread against PAS, and efforts to paint PAS as an extreme party,” he told ST.
“After the death of Nik Aziz, PAS went back to the Malay-Muslim approach. It is quite chauvinistic, ultra-Malay and ultra-Islam. Non-Malays don’t feel safe under a PAS rule, or under a party which focuses on Malay-Muslim issues, while PH is seen as a party that can uphold the rights of all races,” said Dr Mazlan.Between 2008 and 2015, with Datuk Nik Aziz at the fore, PAS worked together with the DAP and Datuk Seri Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat under the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat umbrella.