Islamist party demands divorce pledge
Updated
Malaysia's Islamic PAS party has been criticised over a loyalty oath sworn by some of its legislators who have pledged to divorce their wives if they ever switch parties.
Khalid Samad, a member of the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party, which is part of the opposition alliance, said he took the oath when he was selected to contest the 2008 general elections. Party-hopping has become a hot political issue in Malaysia .... the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which rules nationally, earlier this year managed to claw back one of the states it lost in the polls by luring opposition legislators to switch sides.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Professor Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Director of the Institute of the Malay World and Civilisation at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
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SHAMSUL: I don't think this is very serious, because I think they are now suffering from leadership problems, so I think this is going to be the least of the problems. However, it is not only PAS members of Legislative Council or parliament that has to take an oath of some kind. Even the Democratic Action Party members or candidates have to do so and sign an agreement that they would retire or they would resign if they were to jump ship. But so far, it has been contested and filled, because the DAP member in Perak has managed to jump ship and she has not sunk.
LAM: Well, you mentioned that the party leadership issue within PAS itself. Does this move have the support of party executives, given that PAS has for some time, been trying to rebrand itself as a forward-looking Islamic party?
SHAMSUL: Well, actually this is one of the strategies PAS adopted and also DFP adopted in the 2008 elections, except the DAP made it very public, but PAS did not make it public.
LAM: Do you mean to say the DAP mps threatened to divorce their wives too?
SHAMSUL: No, not divorce, but they are supposed to resign and retire immediately, so it is kind of a ransom situation. You either remain with us, or you leave. So I think this what we seen in both the parties.
LAM: Well party-hopping has of course has been a problem within Malaysian politics, particularly for the Opposition. Do you think this might be a response to the Pakatan Rakyat's experience to Perak state where they were sprung, if you like by the ruling Barisan Nasional, because of these crossovers, because of people switching sides?
SHAMSUL: We have to get the time line correct here, because these oaths were taken before 2008. Now, it is already nearly one-and-a-half years after, so I would imagine these issues raised recently to remind other PAS members if they do jump ship. So far, there is no PAS member jump ship, so I think this is just a reminder, because the recent one is a PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) member that jumped ship.
LAM: Well, how do you think Muslim voters might respond to this call, even though, as you say it was a call that was made back in 2008, obviously they are reinforcing it now?
SHAMSUL: Well, I think there are mixed reactions to this, but people don't take this seriously, because it is a strategy of PAS to retain the --quote unquote - "husband" as long as the wife in the family are together. So PAS is actually in a way, viewed as trying to persuade family members to ask the husband or the father not to move away to another party. And I think this is a very interesting approach as far as we're concerned. It's never been taught before and never been practised before. So we must credit PAS for this ingeniousness, but er...
LAM: Well I mean friendly persuasion is one thing, but to threaten to divorce your wife because she does not support your party, that might seem to many people as a bit drastic?
SHAMSUL: Well, it is drastic as much as any political reform is concerned. I mean you're supposed to be democratic, you respect human rights and so on and so forth, but here you are, these are the people who fight for these rights and they're violating the very instance of wanting to be seen as a democratic representative. So it is highly contradictory.
LAM: Mmm. And you don't think it would have a negative impact on PAS, given that it would send a fairly negative signal to women and womens rights groups as well?
SHAMSUL: Well, the recent survey done by another colleague of mine of 2,000 members of PAS, showed that PAS support is, or rather a section of the people had been unimpressive towards PAS is doing, not because of this but because of their leadership trouble and struggle, because some sections of PAS leadership felt that they should join UMNO and form a Malay unity government. So I think this issue has been buried among the bigger issues here.
LAM: So I guess they have nothing to lose anyway?
SHAMSUL: Well, they losing anyway, so it is interesting to watch, because it's an exciting time here in Malaysia.
