My opinion, however, is that we should not get angry about this meeting and start calling Nasharudin all sorts of nasty names, like what you are doing now. It is good that this meeting was reported. It could have been worse. The meeting could have gone unreported and no one would have known about it -- like in the case of so many of the other meetings since 2008 that were held but went unreported.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

PAS not practicing maturity in politics when handling Nasharudin's issue in Mecca with PM – Mustapa

(Bernama) -- PAS leaders and members have not shown maturity in their political ideology in the recent issue whereby its former Deputy President Nasharudin Mat Isa was seen in a photograph, seated beside prime minister Najib Tun Razak during a meeting in Mecca.

Kelantan Barisan Nasional (BN) Liaison Chief Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed who is also International Trade and Industry Minister said PAS members should not make any assumptions based on the photograph.

"They (PAS) should me matured in their political ideology and not conclude that when both leaders are seen together it meant Nasharudin has joined Umno," he told Bernama when met at the Hari Raya Aidilfitri Open House hosted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Cabinet Ministers at Seri Perdana here today.

Nasharudin, upon his return from Mecca on Thursday had said that his meeting with Najib and religious scholars in Mecca had not touched the issue of Umno or PAS, because the topic of discussion was regarding the ummah.

Last Wednesday, Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat had said he would not be surprised if Nasharudin quits PAS after being seen together with Najib in Mecca last Tuesday.

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Malaysia has what is called The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, or the MCCBCHST. As you can see, Islam is not part of that Council or else it would be called MCCIBCHST, meaning The Malaysian Consultative Council of Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism.

Now, let us put aside politics for the meantime, at least for this paragraph, and ask: why is Islam not in that Council? I am only guessing, of course, but I suppose it is because Muslims do not feel ‘threatened’ or consider Islam as being ‘under attack’, like maybe those from the other religions. Hence Muslims do not feel that Islam needs the ‘security’ that the Council can offer.

Anyway, I said I am only guessing but the fact still remains that Muslims are of the opinion that Islam needs no representation in that Council. Muslims feel that the government can take care of Islam so they do not need a ‘movement’ to look after the interests of Islam.

Now, the Muslims are ‘divided’, as even the government admits, into pro-government Muslims and pro-opposition Muslims. And, say what you like, it is Islam that divided them in the first place when the ‘liberals’ and ‘conservatives’ in Umno disagreed on matters concerning Islam and the ‘Muslim Wing’ left Umno to form PAS (then called the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party or PMIP) on 4th April 1956. (Coincidentally, PKR was also formed on 4th April, but in 1999).

Note that Umno was formed in 1946 so PAS is just ten years younger than Umno -- but ‘older’ if you consider that Umno (Baru) was actually formed 32 years later in 1988 and hence can be considered a ‘new’ (Baru) party.

Anyway, that is not the issue but merely my ‘normal’ way of turning a short article into a long (cheong hei) article to irritate you and get you to comment on all sorts of things that all have nothing to do with this article.

The point I want to make is, let us say that there are two Muslim groups in Malaysia, one pro-government and the other anti-government. Both groups, however, the pro-government as well as the anti-government, refuse to work with the MCCBCHST. In that sense, although the Muslims may be divided politically, they are still united in certain matters -- such as not to work with the Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and Taoists (meaning to not join the MCCBCHST).

Malaysians at large may not be aware of this, but if Muslims can set aside their political differences, they can actually work together. However, because religion is also politics, at least as far as Islam is concerned, this stands in the way of Muslim unity.

At times, however, Muslims from both sides of the political divide do attempt to reach out to the other side on the platform of the ummah (or community, normally meaning the Muslim community). The news report above is one such occasion. But there are many other occasions where ‘secret’ meetings have been held and which have gone unreported.

I know many people, even from the opposition, are very unhappy about the recent meeting between the former Deputy President of PAS, Nasharudin Mat Isa, and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. And the fact that this was reported makes them even angrier.

My opinion, however, is that we should not get angry about this meeting and start calling Nasharudin all sorts of nasty names, like what you are doing now. It is good that this meeting was reported. It could have been worse. The meeting could have gone unreported and no one would have known about it -- like in the case of so many of the other meetings since 2008 that were held but went unreported.

When the meetings are held openly and are reported, then at least we would know what is going on. If the meetings were ‘pushed underground’ that would be worse. Then we would be totally ignorant about the existence of these meetings and about what they discussed.

On Wednesday, Malaysia Today is going to publish a report, which is going to surprise you. You thought you understood the Malays but actually you do not. And this report is going to reveal what the Malays are really thinking.

I would rather, instead of whacking those from PAS who meet those from Umno (since they are still going to meet anyway whatever we may say), we ensure that the meetings are aboveboard so that we can monitor the progress of such meetings and not get caught with our pants down.

Ideally, of course, people from PAS and Umno should not meet, even if they meet not to discuss politics but just to discuss Islam. However, the Muslims do not have the equivalent of the MCCBCHST and are not part of the MCCBCHST. Hence they will meet on an ‘informal’ platform. And this will raise a problem because although they meet to discuss Islam and not to discuss politics, since Islam and politics cannot be separated, invariably an ‘agreement’ on Islam would upset the political equation.

So how do we resolve this problem then? Well, wait for my Wednesday’s report to understand why it is a problem that cannot be easily resolved. We must instead figure out how to accommodate the problem rather than how to eradicate it. Sometimes, some problems do not have a solution and instead of going head-on we may need to navigate around that problem.