By Mat Muzzim
To understand the recent postures of Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia commonly known as PAS) on the issues of Hudud, the usage of Allah and the Selangor Mentri Besar appointment, one needs to understand the historical roles played by the PAS Youth Wing, its legacy and the “resurgence” of Islam in Malaysia.
The PAS Youth Wing as an heir to the present conservative ulama faction has a bearing upon the future direction of PAS’ ideological and political orientation. It is instrumental in applying modern management and marketing practices in designing, producing and popularising Islamic popular culture, merchandise and sermons to the younger generations.
Pop Islam can be referred to as a youth culture among young Muslims who are conservative yet at the same time associate themselves with modern society. They tend to organise their daily life to conform to their faith while living a lifestyle that is increasingly influenced by mass media and a market-driven consumerist culture.
The PAS Youth Wing is made up of a young generation of believers who are passionate in transforming the Islamic Party’s struggle (perjuangan Islam) by adopting and adapting popular approaches in propagating Islamic messages – a fusion of modern consumerist culture with conservative elements of Islamic teachings. Through an alignment of commercial activities, social media, the patronage of celebrity personalities, and even rock music festivals, these new approaches exhort the introduction of Islamic Criminal law (hudud/qisas) and ultimately the establishment of a Syari’ah-based Islamic State.
A Brief Sketch of The PAS Leadership
Four phases can be discerned in the history of PAS leadership:
- Ahmad Fuad Hassan (1951-1953) posited an anti-colonial Malay nationalist stand;
- Abbas Alias (1953-1956) as a propagator of reforms;
- Asri Muda (1969-1982) emphasized the socialist elements of Islam; and
- Abdul Hadi Awang currently heading an ulama leadership approving of a pop-Islam approach among the young Muslims.
These leaders were inspired and influenced by events in the Middle East, having studied in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Indian sub-continent. The Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Arab-Israeli wars and the consecutive Gulf conflicts have shaped successive generations of young leaders of the “Young Turks” in renewing the struggle of the party.
With Asri Muda being shouted down and later resigned in the PAS General Assembly in 1982, PAS Youth Wing leaders Yusof Rawa, Fadzil Noor, Abdul Hadi Awang, Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat assumed the role of the “first wing” (sayap utama) or the “pressure group” (pendesak), championing kepimpinan ulama (ulama leadership) as the guiding inspiration of the new leadership. They subsequently assumed the present PAS leadership
Once the PAS ulama leadership has been consolidated, it is not surprising that the Ulama Consultative Council (Majlis Syura Ulamak) exerts influence upon PAS’ stands on contemporary issues.
The leadership adopted Muslim Brotherhood education on tarbiyah and exclusive study circle (the usrah, halaqah) while concurrently strengthening their international brotherhood networking abroad. (Usrah, Arabic term for family, is considered part of tabiyah [lit.: growth, increase], a generic term for all forms of Islamic education within the party).
By the 1990s, the ulama-led PAS began to show little compromising attitude in their Islamist convictions. The arrest of Parti Keadilan Rakyat leader Anuar Ibrahim in 1998 and the mass mobilization of an emerging opposition under the reformasi movement led PAS to cooperate with PKR and DAP (Democratic Action Party) to form the Barisan Alternatif. The coalition did not last long as DAP end its co-operation with PAS over disagreement on the hudud issue in 2001.
The disastrous outings of the 2004 general election caused PAS to soften its tone to instead emphasize “the substance of an Islamic state instead of its form”. Pragmatists within the party called for a decrease in emphasis on institutionalizing Islamic rule based on the Syariah while holding on to patience with other opposition parties to form the Pakatan Rakyat.
The Youth Wing, under the leadership of its former chief Ustaz Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi from 2009 onwards, has intensified, and at times, dominated the discourse within the party. The main thrust of the argument is that “the sovereignty of Islam can only be realized if we choose an Islamist state….It is certainly a duty for the Islamic community to struggle for it”.
Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi argued in 2012 that PAS’ Caring State agenda is the second phase in creating an Islamic State (Fasa Ke-Dua pembinaan Negara Islam). It can only be achieved, first and foremost, through the realization of an Islamic State (Negara Berkebajikan sebagai substance (sic) kepada Negara Islam) that is fully governed based on the Syari’ah. Indeed, he has presented his view that PAS is “the wing of one global Islamic movement” which was born of the aspiration “to build a new Caliphate” from the demise of the Islamic Caliphate (Khalifah Islamiyyah). He justified PAS continuing struggle for a caliphate and emphasized the importance of re-establishing an Islamic caliphate.
Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi got his nickname “Tantawi” with reference to the al-Azhar’s Tanta campus in Cairo where he studied, and later formed and presided over, the Dewan Perwakilan Mahasiswa Tanta (DPMT) comprising of students from his alma mater and neighbouring Medical University of Tanta.
The present PAS Youth Wing posed a challenge to the senior moderates whose cohorts mostly studied in the local and UK universities in the 1970s. They back a stricter ulama rule than that held by some senior conservative ulamas, upholding the rally slogans of “purify the struggle, bring about victory” (murnikan perjuangan, maknakan kemenangan).
The view of Ustaz Yusof Mahmud (2010) was that “……(it is) no use going to Putrajaya if the basis of PAS’s struggles become eroded…”, PAS Youth Wing disagreed insofar that an Islamic state is an Utopian dream, “there is always a way to implement an Islamic state….”.
The Pop-Islam of The Youth Wing
There has been an influx into the party of university graduates and young professionals from the new Malay middle-class since the Reformasi years. This new influx has transformed the party’s image and created innovative strategies in the party’s missionary work. The rise of pop-Islamism or the popisation of Islam in Malaysia has not being fully understood by others outside the Malay community until Muller made a ground-breaking study of the mendekati generasi muda by PAS. PKR has to acknowledge, accept, adopt and adapt this approach in order to widen its political appeal.
PAS Youth Wing has conducted Expedisi Dakwah (XPDC Dakwah). During such expeditions, PAS members are willing to mingle with groovy bohemians wearing outlandish fashions and embracing popular musicians like Mel Wings and Amy Search. At PAS General Assembly (the Muktamar), besides nasyid, pop-nasyid musicians and selebriti abound. It was said that even Nik Aziz positively greeted this development.
What are the justifications for PAS Youth Wing to adopt this strategy?
The popisation of dakwah is seen as a bridge linking the elder generation with the younger ones while at the same time connecting diverging social and cultural groups whose faith and political support PAS has sought to rekindle and subsume. The campaign is seen as a just struggle (perjuagan) that resonates with Islamic beliefs. By 2010, PAS has a Bureau for Arts, Sports and Culture to implement the popisation approach in dakwahism.
PAS also has a Women Wing, the NISA, to connect with young pengabung generasi muda. Youth-orientated groups include OMGK (Orang Muda Generasi Kita). Even the Unit Amal has began re-branding itself with imej baru lebih smart.
PAS has formed the Pusat Asuham Tunas Islam (PASTI) kindergartens and the KOPASTI (Koperasi Pendidikan dan Kebajikan Anak Soleh Tunas Islam Malaysia Berhad) that sell tea, chocolates, malt-chocolate drinks, toothpaste, and perfumes branded as Caliph Mecca and Medina.
Should we not view PAS Youth Wing’s pop-Islam campaign as a superior spiritual challenge to out-marketize UMNO Khairy’s appeasement to the mat rempit ?
PAS Youth Wing has attempted to appropriate the rise of Islamic consumer culture, to strategically mobilise this resource and to subordinate it to the party’s agenda of dominating the social, economic and political life of the young Muslims. Although the success and the long term implication of this strategy have yet to be evaluated, it constitutes an aspect of the intensification of Islamic dominance in the political processes in Malaysia.
Acknowledgement
The influence and insights gleaned from Dominik Muller’s Politics and Youth in Malaysia: The Pop-Islamist Reinvention of PAS (Routledge, 2014) and Joseph Chinyong Liow, Piety and Politics: Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia (Oxford University Press, 2009) has been incorporated in writing this article. The article forms part of an ongoing study on the relationship between Islam and politics in Malaysia from 1957 to 2013.
