PAS is to be blamed for dividing the Malay community with its flawed teachings, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in a blog post explaining his rejection of the Islamist party that Umno is now wooing.
He said PAS could not be forgiven for causing disunity among Malaysian Muslims with its teachings that were not based on Islam but on the words of its leaders.
“Only when PAS was formed did the Malays split and become separated into two hostile groups. This disunity has weakened the Malays.
“The leaders’ and party’s teachings are more important than the teachings of Islam. That is why although the Quran mentions that Muslims are brothers, PAS’ members are willing to be enemies with other Muslims because of the teachings of PAS leaders.
“It is not Islam that breaks the Malays, but PAS politics that leads to disunity,” the prime minister wrote on his personal blog.
His post comes as Umno and PAS seek greater political cooperation, with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi attending the opening of PAS’ annual congress in Kuala Terengganu last weekend.
Dr Mahathir said the political cooperation or “tahaluf siyasi” that Umno and PAS sought to establish was no different from the collaboration Umno has with MCA and MIC under Barisan Nasional.
But now, he said, PAS was trying to legitimise a pact with Umno in Arabic and Islamic terms.
He pointed to what he said was PAS’ “hypocrisy”, in particular of its president Abdul Hadi Awang, who in the past had called Umno and BN “infidels”.
Dr Mahathir also said that unlike Umno during British rule, PAS had not wanted independence for Malaya.
“PAS said that Malaya was not yet ready for independence. The result was victory for the Alliance (in the 1955 general election),” he said, referring to the coalition that preceded BN.
PAS only won one seat then, which Dr Mahathir called proof that its rejection of independence was out of touch with the people’s aspirations even then.
“As a result, PAS used Islam to motivate and attract the support of Malays.” – September 19, 2018.
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