http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/litee/sideviews/article/an-open-letter-to-yb-dr-dzul-eidit-hashim/
In one forum on February 28, PAS MP and CWC (Dewan Harian) member Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad suggested that his party is ready to accept a non-Muslim as the deputy president and later claimed that efforts are on-going to move towards that.
PAS in-built check-and-balance mechanism such as the Majlis Syura will ensure that non-Muslims in higher leadership role will comply with the syariah. Such will reflect PAS intellectual renewal and a refreshing style of new politics.
While YB Dr Dzul has reiterated that his statement is not to fish non-Muslim votes, it definitely has disquieted a number of people within PAS itself. The head of the PAS Youth wing, Nasrudin Hassan, was among the first to issue a lengthy explanation in his blog, critical of such a proposal. It is a statement deemed unnecessary, careless, void of truth and brought anew accusation that a faction within PAS is challenging the tradition of ulama leadership.
First of all, the PAS No. 2 position should not be brought to a position of disrepute as if it is a mere celebratory role. By invoking the thawabit (fixed) vs mutaghayyirat (interchangeable) rule, YB Dr Dzul has inadvertently posited that the deputy presidency role is not central to PAS’s Islamist tradition. Let us all be reminded that the deputy president will be the second-in-command of the largest Islamic movement in Southeast Asia. In case of the president’s absence, the No. 2 is expected to automatically assume presidential responsibility. This is Management 101 really. It will be beyond imagination that at such critical moment, no matter how brief it will be, that Muslims in Malaysia will be led by a non-Muslim.
And it is utterly wrong to place the burden of check and balance onto the shoulders of the Majlis Syura alone. In Islam such a responsibility is shared by all and both the president and the deputy president are expected to lead the party’s bureaucracy to offer their own means of check and balance in the best tradition of Islam, iman and ihsan. I guess it will be politically wrong to argue much about a non-Muslim spiritual disconnection to the Islamic cause but I am sure many would prefer a deputy president whom one can point to the imam’s spot during a prayer congregation and whose doa we can confidently amen.
I do not wish to comment within the post-Islamism context an issue brought to the fore by the PAS Policy Centre (which you led) through a forum late last year, because your thinking is post-Islamism essentially and this would mean a new level of debate altogether. But I do wish to point to the fiqh al-harakah you apply in reference to Egypt’s Ikhwan al-Muslimin to legitimise your argument. The Coptic Rafik Habib was elected within the Freedom & Justice Party (FJP), which has its own separate constitution, structure and objective from Ikhwan. To argue that Ikhwan has a non-Muslim deputy leader is simply a flawed contingent, unless you are suggesting that PAS should abandon its “Harakah Islamiyyah” roots, transform into a pure political institution ala FJP and thereby let others (?) assume the mantle of Islamic movement leadership in this country.
But I am sure that YB Dr’s statement is a mere rhetoric driven by a hypothetical thinking. Because one can infer that if PAS can have a non-Muslim deputy president, surely we can have a non-Muslim yang di-pertua kawasan (YDP), a non-Muslim vice-president and even a non-Muslim director of the Policy Study Centre. Or one may argue why stop at the deputy president? Why not have a non-Muslim president too since PAS has the unique Majlis Syura mechanism (which is actually non-executive in nature) to make sure the leadership is syariah compliant. Ironically, it does sound like a bank now.
Because above all the rhetoric, I am sure that YB Dr Dzul realises that Bab 7, Fasal 25 (2) of PAS constitution states that the deputy president must be a PAS member and PAS member according to Bab 4, Fasal 11(2) must be a Muslim. Surely as a self-proclaimed Islamist-democrat, you certainly want PAS members to unite on important issues such as Buku Jingga and Negara Berkebajikan agenda and not to create division just to prove your point that a non-Muslim can be PAS deputy leader especially now we are at Ambang PRU 13. While that would certainly be new politics, it’s definitely NOT smart politics, right? Arguing that such a move is in-line with Negara Berkebajikan is certainly not helping the party to properly explain its virtues now that your rhetoric has given ammunition to PAS mortal enemies.
But actually, we can all move pass the rhetoric to test your hypothesis. As an elected member of the central working committee and head of the party’s think-tank, YB Dr Dzul is at the best position to formally propose to the party hierarchy that the PAS deputy presidency can be contested by a non-Muslim. Surely then, we can see whether your hypothesis, that the party is ready to accept a non-Muslim deputy president will ring true or false.
