PAS, look at the big picture

Honestly PAS, ask yourself, did you pay any attention to the outsiders' critics before TGNA's outburst? Perhaps some of you did, but I believe most of you discard those comments the next minute after you read it.

Some of you may be asking, why, why choose this moment for the outburst? As if there is not enough outsider condemnation of us every day after Bagan Pinang, now we have to deal with our own internal ramblings? But, is this a bad moment, a bad timing for such outburst? NO. Not at all.

This is exactly the perfect time that you will actually pay some attention to what people has to say because your arrogance was greatly shaken after your embarrassing lost in Bagan Pinang. If TGNA's outburst came after Permatang Pasir's victory, you guys would probably have openly asked for his retraction or resignation from party.

Understanding Nik Aziz's outburst

For those of you in PAS who find TGNA's latest outburst disgusting, please ask yourself this question:

Who feels the most pain when a parent is forced to cane their own son? The parent? or the son?

As a parent ourselves, we know pretty well that each stroke of rotan that strikes our son's buttock feels like a knife cutting through our heart, just like the saying, "Hit on your flesh, pain in my heart." Unfortunately, most of the time, we have to accept the fact that our beloved son will not able to understand that the physical pain that he has to endure is way less than the emotional pain we have to suffer for caning him.

But, as a parent, we have to stay strong and do the right thing for our children even though it is painful for us to do so. Punishing or scolding our own child is always for the better good with a hope that our children will learn from their mistakes and excel in their life even when we are no longer around.

We certainly wish that our children will understand our pains and sacrifices later in life; but we really wouldn't mind if they don't, as long as they are on the right path to have an excellent life in the future.

I believe this is what TGNA as the 'parent of PAS' is feeling at the moment. To him, PAS's current leaders are his children, he wants them to be on right path to achieve what he could not over so many years, for PAS to replace Barisan Nasional as the federal government.

Very likely that TGNA senses that PAS leaders (his children) are not paying attention to what people is grumbling about them on the ground. As he said it himself, "I hate people condemning my party and my president", just like how any parent will feel when they have to listen to teachers complaining away about their children in school.

We, as parents prefer ourselves to be the person punishing our own children rather than seeing our children being punished by others in the society. The same applies to TGNA. In order to wake 'his children' up, TGNA would rather reprimand PAS's leaders himself rather than seeing his party gets a rude awakening by losing the next election terribly.

At his age, I pity him because he was forced to take on the tough role and endures the immense emotional pain as being the bad person; to voice up against his own party top leaders. He knows his children are going to hate him for this outburst, but like what any parent would do, he would rather sacrifice himself for the sake of saving his children's future.

So PAS, are you hurt now? I hope I am not too cruel to say that I hope that the 'pain' is now painful enough for you to finally accept some realities about the bad perception that you are suffering were due to your own doings.

The wrong message of Islam by PAS

A lot of PAS's leaders are actually ustaz. Ustaz is a teacher or someone who supposed to be highly respectable, reputable and reliable in the society. But why PAS has yet to be the most respectable, reputable and reliable party that rakyat Malaysia can count on despite having so many teachers around?

Islam aims at making all individuals peace-loving to the ultimate extent. That is why Muslims are enjoined to greet one another by saying 'Assalam-o-Alaikum' that is, peace be upon you. According to another saying of the Prophet, the best Islam is to greet everyone you come across, whether or not you are acquainted with the person. (Fathul-Bari 1/103).

In order to preserve the peace established by nature, from disruption, two important injunctions have been laid down by Islam. One at the individual level, stresses the exercise of patience, and the other, at the social level, forbids taking the offensive.

With that clear-cut objective of Islam, Islam supposes to be the religion everyone respect and feel comfortable with, because it brings peace, and peace is everyone's utmost priority in life. With so many ustazs in PAS, why hasn't this message being sent out successfully?

Why hasn't people feel comfortable about the message of Islam PAS is trying to send? Was it because PAS has been harping on the wrong issues thus sending the wrong signals about their version of Islam to us?

Did PAS realize that the message of Islam that we are getting from them were mainly about concerts, beers, interest of certain group of people and holier than thou attitude by imposing morale rights on others? Perhaps that was not the intended message PAS is trying to send, but can you blame us for not receiving the right messages?

Discipline your way of thinking, think about the big picture

To some PAS leaders, "banning" seems to be the answer for a certain social disease. Is it really so? Lets take a look at an example below:

Assuming that a lot of students in your school are visiting cyber-cafes after school-hours very often. It is an unhealthy habit because it wastes their time and their parents hard-earned money unnecessarily and with the wrong friends' influence, there's a very high chance they will get involved in smoking, drugs, sex and gambling.

As a teacher, what will you do to curb those social ills?

a. Perhaps you think of writing a letter to the local authorities to close down those cyber-cafes. But, how long do you think the idea of banning those legal cyber-cafes will work? Certainly not very long! By banning those legal cyber-cafes without educating your students, soon your students will still find their way to visit those illegal ones which make things even worse in the end.

b. Or you choose to educate them about their responsibilities as a student and a filial child to their parents -- to let them know that they are hurting their parents' pocket and heart by visiting cyber-cafes?

c. Or perhaps you lead the way to keep your students occupied after school hours to let them realize that there are better things to do rather than visiting cyber-cafes?

It is rather obvious, (b) and (c) is the more effective way for curbing social ills rather than the "banning" method in (a). By adopting (b) and (c), at the end of the day, your students will have more self-discipline and maturity to avoid cyber-cafes because they know they can gain so much more doing other things in their free time.

Banning those cyber-cafes will not stop your students from looking for them. The only way to make them stop looking for cyber-cafes is through education (b) and leading by example (c).

Yes, in the end, most likely those cyber-cafes will still exist but it doesn�t matter anymore as your students are being educated to avoid them anyway. And the best prize is (by God's willing), hopefully those cyber-cafes will cease operating because there are not enough customers to maintain their businesses. Isn't this the best solution to this scenario and the best way to teach your students?

Using the analogy above, instead of asking for beers to be banned in convenient stores, PAS should strive for the day the convenient stores stop selling beers on their own due to poor sales because the people realizes that it is a thing they can live better without. Likewise, instead of banning concerts, PAS should strive for the day, they no longer need to worry about its people getting influenced easily by hedonism culture from the West while watching concert, if that's their real concern about Western artist's concerts.

Yes PAS, I know it is rather hard to change the way you think. To change the way you think after so many years takes a lot of discipline on your mind.

But being discipline is not suppose to be an issue for you, because God has trained you to be discipline since young, on the day you started praying to him. To pray 5 times a day without miss requires the greatest discipline from one's heart. You are well-trained to be the most discipline person, and now you just need to use that discipline to train your thoughts to start looking at the bigger picture ....

There's no denying 'changing the way you think' takes a lot of patience to get it to succeed. But do keep in mind that patience pays in the end according to Islam. The Quran says: Surely the patient will be paid their wages in full without measure. (39:10), which is why Islam repeatedly enjoins Muslims to tread the path of patience.

PAS, once you are able to change the way you think, you will find that instead of focusing those petty things to show your Islamic credentials, you will start to aim for the day where all Malaysians feeling comfortable, peaceful, satisfy and safe under your Islamic leadership and caring governing style. The day where people find every PAS leaders capable of being their model and example for their children to follow. The day where people find PAS as the reliable protector of all Malaysian, the most trustworthy uncorrupted political party to vote for, which is the highest recognition from the rakyat of your Islamic credentials.

When the day comes, do you think we will have any objection when you say beer or concert is bad for us?

Oleh TOHKONG-MOSJID
(Penulis adalah seorang pemuda bukan Muslim yang berayah-angkatkan seorang ustaz)