Category: Political Islam

Rama Ramanathan
The Malaysian Insider
30 July 2015

Disgruntled members of PAS, Malaysia’s sole Islamic political party, are working to form a new political party. There has been some debate over whether the word “Islamic” or the word “Muslim” should be in the name of the new party.

The debate is academic, since the two words will not be permitted by the Registrar of Societies. Indeed, some years ago Malaysia’s Malay political party, Umno, agitated to remove the word “Islam” from the name of PAS (“Parti se Islam Malaysia”) and to forbid the use of the words Islam or Muslim in the name of any political party in Malaysia.

Umno has made no effort to include an Islamic element in its name. Umno is aggressively race-based, presenting itself as defender of the Malay race. Nevertheless Umno does claim it is a party of Muslims. The claim is legitimate since Malays are required by the Federal Constitution to profess the religion of Islam. Continue reading “My hopes for Gerakan Harapan Baru”

— Koon Yew Yin
Malay Mail Online
July 26, 2015

JULY 26 — Gerakan Harapan Baru, Parti Progresive Islam — whatever name is finally decided for the breakaway group of Pas moderates and progressives — will not matter. What matters is that a new political force is being set up to provide Malaysian Muslims with an alternative to Pas and UMNO in the coming elections.

This move by PAS reformers is possibly the most important development to take place in the country’s political system for a long time. Why do I say this?

Well, most Malaysians especially non-Muslims, we have only had a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea since 1957 in terms of Muslim based parties. That is a choice of UMNO or PAS.

UMNO plays racial cum religious politics; PAS plays religious cum racial politics. We had what is referred to as Hobson’s choice or in simple English, no choice in choosing the government. This ‘take it or leave it’ option to voters is finally going to change. Continue reading “The long-awaited political breakthrough”

A Shukur Harun
The Malaysian Insider
21 July 2015

Teman-temanku yang dikasihi

Petang itu aku berdiri di anjung masjid

Menyaksikan senja merah beransur hilang

Membawa pulang Ramadhan Kareem

Kutulis puisi ini dalam dakapan

Aidilfitri yang harum semerbak

Menebarkan kasih sayang sesama umat

Teman-temanku yang dikasihi

Detik yang lalu jangan ditangisi

Kerana ia bukan lagi bersama kita

“If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life”,

Your tears will prevent you

from seeing the stars,”

kata penyair dunia Rabindranath Tagore Continue reading “Puisi panjang harapan baru”

Five days ago, I posed the question whether PAS could lose Kelantan in the next 14th General Election.

I said that based on the 13th General Election performance, if there is a 4% swing of voters against PAS in Kelantan in the next poll, PAS will lose power in the state it had governed for 25 years since 1990.

Is a 4% swing in a state an unlikely happening?

In the 13th General Election in Kedah, PAS and Pakatan Rakyat lost the Kedah State Government because there was a 3.8% swing of the voters against PAS.

The voter swing against PAS was even greater and more overwhelming during the 2004 General Election in Terengganu, where there was a 15% swing of voters against PAS, sweeping out the Terengganu PAS State Government after only one term of Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi as the Terengganu Mentri Besar.

There is no doubt that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would have been wiped out in the next general election if Pakatan Rakyat had contested the next polls in total disregard of the violation of the PR Common Policy Framework by one of the component parties, with hudud as a controversial issue in the election campaign. Continue reading “The new coalition of Malaysian progressives – whether Pakatan Rakyat 2.0, New Pakatan Rakyat or Harapan Rakyat – will be sequel to 13GE battle in 14GE to rekindle hopes and aspirations of Malaysians for political change in Putrajaya”

– Wan Saiful Wan Jan
The Malaysian Insider
21 July 2015

This Raya week marks the beginning of a more concerted effort by some towering figures in PAS to set up a new political party.

Calling themselves Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) or New Hope Movement, they have started a nationwide tour to speak to the public in all states across Malaysia.

The events in Kelantan and Perlis on Sunday received a very warm reception. Turnout was very good and people that I spoke too who attended the events were clearly excited.

PAS’s response to GHB is expected. They see it as a threat and they are painting GHB with bad light. This is sheer hypocrisy.

Various individuals in PAS, including their president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, have gone overboard to insult their former colleagues who lost in the party elections in June.

Hadi was even quoted to use words such as “barua” and “tolol” when referring to the GHB leaders, albeit without mentioning them directly. Continue reading “Is it really new hope?”

— L.S. Yap
The Malay Mail Online
July 20, 2015

JULY 20 — The fear that the new Islamic-leaning party Gabungan Harapan Baru (GHB) will be another religious party advocating theocracy is unfounded. There is a tendency amongst secularists to resort to fear mongering to skew the direction of national politics. The story is a familiar one: the participation of the religious political parties will pave the way for the degeneration of our democracy into a religious theocracy.

However, these fears are built on the assumption that the GHB and PAS can be simplistically banded together as Islamic parties for Malays. This is an unhelpful generalisation, with the dangerous potential to obfuscate rather than elucidate.

While PAS can be said to be principally a religious movement with its participation in democracy an instrument to achieving its objectives, GHB is a political party with religion to provide it with legitimacy. Politics is employed by PAS to give greater force to its religious movement, whereas religion is carefully used to legitimise the political mission of GHB.

In other words, religion is the raison de’etre of PAS, while the democratic wishes of its members, not religion, is the primary concern of GHB. Nowhere is this more clear from the top down and bottom up party structure of PAS and GHB respectively. Continue reading “GHB is not PAS 2.0”

Khalid Samad
Malaysiakini
20 Jul 2015

Kebelakangan ini saya banyak ‘terbaca’ tulisan seorang yang bernama Fathi Aris Omar. Tulisannya telah ‘diwhatsappkan’ kepada saya oleh seorang kenalan yang meminta saya memberi komen balas.

Jarang saya berminat untuk respon tulisan orang yang tidak saya kenali, tetapi setelah membaca beberapa tulisannya, saya merasakan ada keperluan untuk saya respon bukan sahaja kepada beliau tetapi kepada mereka yang turut berfikiran skeptikal seperti beliau. Continue reading “Menjawab mereka yang skeptikal isu parti baru”

by Looi Sue-Chern
The Malaysian Insider
19 July 2015

PAS MP Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa made the hardest decision of his life when he launched the New Hope Movement (GHB) with other progressive leaders from the party earlier this week.

The turning point in his political life is likely to see him leave the Islamist party and become a founding member of a new political organisation with his “purged” colleagues.

“It is the most difficult decision of my life. I was born and bred in the politics of PAS. My mother was pregnant with me when my father campaigned in Perlis in 1964.

“When I was born on October 25 that year, my father had to find a name that reflected the challenges he went through. So he named me Mujahid, which means a fighter who doesn’t give up.

“I have to live up to my name with the difficulties I face. It has made me who I am,” the 50-year-old told The Malaysian Insider. Continue reading “Joining New Hope Movement hardest decision of my life, says Mujahid”

Three days ago, I posed the question whether PAS could lose Kelantan in the next 14th General Election.

I said that based on the 13th General Election performance, if there is a 4% swing of voters against PAS in Kelantan in the next poll, PAS will lose power in the state it had governed for 25 years since 1990.

Is a 4% swing in a state an unlikely happening?

In the 13th General Election in Kedah, PAS and Pakatan Rakyat lost the Kedah State Government because there was a 3.8% swing of the voters against PAS.

The voter swing against PAS was even more overwhelming as it was nearly four-fold during the 2004 General Election in Terengganu, where there was a 15% swing of voters against PAS, sweeping out the Terengganu PAS State Government after only one term of Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi as the Terengganu Mentri Besar. Continue reading “Pakatan Rakyat would have been wiped out in the 14GE if it had contested the next polls in total disregard of the violation of the PR Common Policy Framework by one of the component parties”

– Al Amin Mohamed Sultan
The Malaysian Insider
18 July 2015

Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) adalah satu pasukan yang sedang bergerak laju dalam mencorakkan warna baru dalam arena politik tanah air.

Ada yang mengatakan mereka ini sebagai serpihan PAS walaupun masyarakat umum lebih memahami mereka ini adalah gabungan individu yang terkeluar daripada kepemimpinan PAS melalui pembersihan terancang dalam muktamar.

Maka, setelah kalah sepatutnya mereka duduk diam-diam sahajalah, buat apa-apa yang rasional dalam terus memajukan parti.

Sayang seribu kali sayang, keputusan yang mereka ambil adalah unik kerana mereka ingin meneruskan agenda yang lebih besar.

Ianya dalam erti kata meneruskan sistem dual parti politik di Malaysia untuk memantapkan blok pembangkang iaitu Pakatan Rakyat yang kini sedang punya pakatan yang longgar terutama daripada aspek sokongan umat Islam melalui PAS. Continue reading “GHB vs PAS: Antara akhlak dan perjuangan”

By Susan Loone
Malaysiakini
Jul 16, 2015

Major Zaidi Ahmad, who was expelled from the Royal Malaysian Air Force over the GE13 indelible ink issue, said he joined Gerakan Harapan Baru (GHB) because PAS has diverted from its principles.

Zaidi, who joined the party only this year, after the military court discharged him from his duties in February, said PAS has become “backward” in its struggles.

“I’ve been a supporter of PAS since I was a young boy in Sungai Petani, so were my parents.

“But when I went to the recent party’s muktamar in Selangor in early June, I saw how the party has diverted from its principles,” he told Malaysiakini, when met after the launch of GHB’s pro-tem committee by its state chief Mujahid Yusof Rawa in Butterworth today.

Zaidi, who is a member of GHB’s 35-member pro-tem committee in Penang, said PAS only wants to promote certain groups and not inclusive anymore.

He said all factions – ulama or progressives – need to work together in PAS but the recent muktamar put an end to that. Continue reading “Major takes off from PAS and lands in New Hope”

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Politik Malaysia sudah pun kotor dan tercemar tanpa perlu Mustafa Ali melompat masuk ke dalam lubuk politik ini dengan pembohongan dan fitnah untuk memburukkan serta membunuh wibawa Progresif PAS yang masih lagi bersamanya sebagai rakan seperjuangan PAS

Dua hari lalu, saya terkejut apabila Presiden PAS, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, telah meniru suara propagandis dan tentera maya UMNO dengan menuduh DAP sebagai “cauvinis” semata-mata kerana DAP menuntut dihidupkan kembali pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan, yang sememangnya terkandung dalam Manifesto Pakatan Rakyat Nasional dan Manifesto Pakatan Rakyat Selangor dalam pilihanraya umum ke-13 yang lalu.

Hadi seolah-olah tidak tahu bahawa pilihanraya kerajaan tempatan wujud di Indonesia, Turki dan Iran. Tak kanlah Hadi nak menuduh Presiden Jokowi dari Indonesia, Presiden Erdogan (Turki) dan bekas Presiden Ahmadinejad (Iran) adalah “komunis” dan “cauvinis” kerana mereka melaksanakan pilihanraya tempatan?

Hari ini saya terkejut apabila seorang lagi pemimpin kanan PAS, bekas Setiausaha Agungnya Datuk Mustafa Ali yang turut meniru suara propagandis dan tentera maya UMNO kononnya parti baru yang akan ditubuhkan oleh kumpulan progresif PAS bakal menghadapi masalah kerana ia adalah proksi DAP, dan dengan itu, orang Melayu tidak akan percaya kepada parti itu.

Sedangkan Mustafa sendiri telah mengakui bahawa label “proksi DAP” ini telah digunakan terhadap PAS apabila PAS bekerjasama dengan DAP dalam Pakatan Rakyat.

Adakah PAS pernah menjadi proksi DAP? Adakah ia menjadi sebab mengapa PAS sukar mendapat sokongan orang Melayu? Continue reading “Malaysian politics are dirty and polluted enough without Mustafa having to leap into the swamp with lies and falsehoods to demonise and character-assassinate PAS progressives”

A Shukur Harun
The Malaysian Insider
14 July 2015

Bagi umat Islam di Malaysia yang mengikuti perkembangan gerakan Islam atau politik Islam yang kini menghadapi pelbagai masalah, menyebabkan pelbagai persoalan dan tanda tanya berlegar di sekitar mereka – apakah sebenarnya yang terjadi.

Apakah tidak ada penyelesaian, atau menempuh jalan mati? Sedangkan mereka mendakwa berpandukan ajaran Al-Quran dan Sunnah sejak berabad-abad lamanya.

Persoalan yang menimbulkan perbalahan ini antaranya disebabkan perbezaan pandangan antara mereka yang sempit dan keras (shadid) dalam memahami Islam dengan pandangan mereka terbuka dan lunak didukung dengan kebijaksanaan – sesuai dengan watak Islam itu sendiri yang unggul, anjal, diterima di sepanjang aman dan keadaan, mampu menangani perubahan dan segalanya.

Bagi golongan jalur keras, Islam itu lebih banyak dilihat daripada aspek hukum daripada aspek yang lain. Continue reading “Harapan kepada ustaz muda progresif”

by Kamles Kumar
Malay Mail Online
July 11, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — PAS’s ousted progressives plan to muscle their way ahead of the Islamist party back to the forefront of Malaysian politics with a new party one leader has described as a “beacon” of the Islamic Renaissance movement both locally and to the world.

The leader – Mohamad Sabu, who is more popularly known as Mat Sabu – said the current PAS leadership has deviated from the party’s original Islamic ideals, become corrupted by material wealth and lost its way.

The new yet-to-be-named movement of “new hope” or Gerakan Harapan Baru as it is referred to, will pick up the slack for the Islamist party, the former PAS deputy president said.

Speaking to Malay Mail Online in an interview yesterday, Mat Sabu said what he wants is to reunite “akidah” (creed) with “akhlak” (morals), both of which he said have been separated from one another due to corruption and materialism.

“If this new party is just to replace Umno or PAS, I don’t agree. But we must introduce that akidah and akhlak must go together in this party.

“Our akidah and akhlak is separated already. Now my struggle is I want to combine both of these back,” Mat Sabu said. Continue reading “After ‘failed’ PAS, Mat Sabu says new party will be Malaysia’s Islamic Renaissance ‘beacon’”

Looi Sue-Chern
The Malaysian Insider
11 July 2015

The new political party being mulled by a group of “purged” progressive PAS leaders will take the position that Islam is bigger than just the Islamic penal code or hudud.

Former PAS central committee member Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa said Islam instructed its believers to preserve the greater peace, instead of bulldozing laws.

“This was why the late spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat put hudud on hold. He understood this very well. He knew that the issue had not been settled.

“Is hudud everything? It is just a criminal law,” he told The Malaysian Insider in an interview at his office in Parit Buntar. Continue reading “New Islamist party has higher purpose than hudud, says Mujahid”

A Shukur Harun
The Malaysian Insider
7 July 2015

Pelbagai pihak, khususnya generasi muda, sedang menunggu-nunggu akan kelahiran parti baharu – Gerakan Harapan Baharu – yang dirancang diumumkan selepas hari raya ini.

Ini menunjukkan sebuah parti baharu yang mampu memberikan harapan masa depan kepada rakyat Malaysia sangat diharapkan. Iaitu ketika rakyat melihat dengan sangat bimbang pelbagai krisis yang menimpa negara yang tidak dapat diselesaikan oleh parti pemerintah, di tengah-tengah Pakatan Rakyat (PR) sendiri juga tidak habis-habisnya berkrisis.

Parti Gerakan Harapan Baharu ini dirancang penubuhannya oleh golongan progresif dan sederhana yang disingkirkan dengan penuh hina dalam muktamar PAS bulan Jun lalu.

Penubuhan parti ini juga untuk meneruskan legasi perjuangan Allahyarham Datuk Fadzil Mohd Noor dan Allahyarham Tuan Guru Nik Abd Aziz Nik Mat yang sangat terbuka dan demokratik serta berpandangan jauh ke depan. Continue reading “Parti baharu sangat dinantikan”

Mohamad Bazzi
Reuters
Hindustani Times
Jul 02, 2015

On June 29, Egypt’s top prosecutor was killed in a car bomb attack as he left his home in Cairo. He was the most senior official to be assassinated since Islamic militants launched an insurgency two years ago after the Egyptian military ousted Mohamed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president.

The assassination of the prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, is a tragedy but it’s not surprising. Egypt spiraled into a cycle of state-sanctioned violence, repression and vengeance as soon as the military removed Morsi from power in July 2013. The new military-backed government launched an aggressive campaign to suppress all political opponents, hunt down leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood who fled after the coup and undo many of the gains made during the 2011 uprising that toppled then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

That is the danger many in the Arab world and in the West failed to grasp when they remained silent after Egypt’s coup: while authoritarian rule appears to provide stability over the short term, it breeds discontent and affirms the idea that the only way to achieve political power is through violence. Continue reading “Why Egypt’s crackdown on Islamists will lead to bloodshed”

Ustaz Haji Hasanuddin Mohd Yunus
Timbalan Presiden
Pertubuhan IKRAM Malaysia
1.7.2015

Mengikuti perkembangan politik dan pembangunan semasa negara, Pertubuhan IKRAM Malaysia (IKRAM) sebagai sebuah pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang prihatin dan cakna kepada keadilan sejagat, keharmonian masyarakat dan kesatuan umat selaras dengan perjuangan IKRAM untuk memastikan ‘Malaysia Menuju Negara Rahmah’, ingin menegaskan pendirian-pendirian berikut untuk kebaikan bersama warga Malaysia:

IKRAM meyakini bahawa sistem pemerintahan berteraskan konsep dwiparti merupakan satu keperluan demi memastikan proses tatakelola kerajaan yang baik berteraskan akauntabiliti, ketelusan dan proses semak dan imbang sentiasa menepati prinsip-prinsip ‘Siyasah Syar’iyyah’ (politik berinspirasikan Syariah).

IKRAM yang bergerak atas dasar prinsip menyuruh yang makruf mencegah yang mungkar (amar makruf nahi munkar) akan terus menjadi kumpulan pendesak dan pengimbang kepada semua pihak samada daripada pihak pemerintah atau pembangkang, agensi kerajaan atau swasta terutamanya yang melibatkan organisasi yang mengendalikan amanah kepentingan awam dan yang melibatkan penyalahgunaan kuasa pentadbiran, ketirisan dalam penggunaan wang awam dan seumpamanya. Continue reading “IKRAM Iltizam Cakna Perkembangan Politik Semasa”

David Gardner
Financial Times
June 17, 2015

A striking collapse of judgement in a leader who once mesmerized his electorate

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant this week suffered another defeat at the hands of Syrian Kurdish fighters who captured Tel Abyad, a town that Isis had held since last summer, when it declared its cross-border caliphate and convulsed the heart of the Middle East.

The striking victory by the Syrian Kurdish militia, affiliated with the Democratic Union party (PYD), brings with it two momentous changes. The Syrian Kurds can now link up territory they hold from the border of the self-ruling Kurdistan Regional Government(KRG)in northern Iraq, through Tel Abyad, on the Turkish-Syrian border, and on westwards to Kobani, recaptured from the jihadis this year after a long emblematic siege that cemented the collaboration between PYD forces on the ground and the US-led coalition against Isis.

But second, the capture of Tel Abyad severs the Isis supply line from the Turkish border to Raqqa, the de facto capital of the caliphate it calls Islamic State. This is — for now — a body blow to the jihadis, and a real advance for the coalition after the recent Isis capture of Palmyra in central Syria and Ramadi in western Iraq. Continue reading “Erdogan succumbs to the fog of politics”

Terima kasih MC YB Baihaki dan YDP PAS Kota Bharu, YB Cikgu Rahim, Timbalan Presiden PAS YB saudara Mat Sabu, S/U Agung PKR YB Rafizi, YB Zuraida dan pemimpin- pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat, saudara- saudara dan saudari, selamat malam salam sejahtera dan salam ubah.

Dalam dua tiga hari ini apa menjadi tajuk berita besar, dua tiga hari ini, skandal 1MDB dan masalah skandal penjualan tanah di KL kepada Lembaga Tabung Haji bukan? Itu tajuk berita besar dan selepas itu pun ada lagi satu dua tajuk besar.

Hari ini nampaknya ada satu blog yang ditulis oleh Zaid Ibrahim, bekas Menteri. Dia kata daripada Jepun dia dapat maklumat bahawa ada satu perjumpaan sulit di Milan. Kenapa di Milan? Siapa ada di Milan? Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin sekarang berada di Milan Itali. Dia ikut Zaid Ibrahim, dia dapat maklumat bahawa ada satu mesyuarat sulit Tan Sri Muhyiddin dengan Tengku Razali mengenai kemungkinan untuk menjatuhkan Najib sebagai Perdana Menteri.

Benar tak benar dia kata pun tak tahu. Dia tak tahu, saya pun tak tahu lah. Tapi apa yang kita tahu ialah Perdana Menteri kita di Tawau Sabah hari ini malam ini. Dan dia sudah mula berperang dengan Tun Dr Mahathir. Dan dia cabar Dr Mahathir bahawa jangan kacau dia, dia rela lawan balik. Mungkin esok apabila dia jumpa dengan Ketua Bahagian Umno akan perkembangan yang berikut.

Tetapi dengan perkembangan- perkembangan semacam ini, bolehkah kita tumbang Umno dan BN di masa depan? Bolehkah? Mungkinkah? Kali yang pertama dalam sejarah Malaysia 58 tahun. Kali yang pertama kita lihat kemungkinan bahawa kita boleh tumbang Umno dan BN. Dan ini kita boleh lihat daripada keputusan PRU13 di mana parti- parti Pakatan Rakyat, PAS, PKR dan DAP. Kita memperolehi majoriti pengundi- pengundi sungguhpun kita kalah daripada segi kerusi parlimen oleh kerana persempadanan kawasan- kawasan pilihanraya tidak adil dan tidak demokratik.

Dan bukan sahaja di masan depan, kalau kita ikut trend ini, mungkin kita boleh sampai ke Putrajaya. Tetapi ada tujuh negeri pun mungkin boleh jatuh. Betul? Kedah boleh jatuh? Terengganu boleh jatuh, Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka dan satu negeri sampai PRU2013 dilihat sebagai satu negeri tak mungkin parti- parti pembangkang untuk pecah.

Johor, Johor sekarang sudah dekat, kita boleh pun memerintah di Johor mengikut keputusan PRU13. Betul? Tetapi prasyarat ialah bahawa Pakatan Rakyat kekal. Bolehkah Pakatan Rakyat kekal? Teruskan. Kalau saya ditanya saya pun tak tahulah. Sama ada Pakatan Rakyat boleh kekal atau tak boleh kekal. Lagi satu bulan akan menentukan masa depan sama ada rakyat Malaysia boleh tukar tumbang Umno dan BN dalam PRU yang akan datang. Continue reading “Transkrip Ucapan Lim Kit Siang semasa Ceramah Perdana di Padang Perdana pada 10 Mei 2015”