Friday, 26-Dec-2003 8:57 AM

SERUAN KEADILAN EDITORIAL

Back to the Future: Semangat 46 revisited

From the word go, the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) never had a comfortable relationship with the Umno-breakaway party, Semangat 46 (Spirit of ‘46). To PAS, Semangat 46 was nothing more than another Umno, a clone of the real thing if you wish. This feeling was strengthened by the fact that Semangat 46’s “perjuangan” was the “restoration” of the “original” Umno and that it had attempted to register itself as “Umno Malaysia” -- and only after the name was rejected by the Registrar of Societies did it change to Semangat 46. For all intents and purposes, Semangat 46, as what the Malays would say, was “gila talak”.

When PAS and Semangat 46 formalised their partnership after the 1990 General Elections when the loose coalition they formed, Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah (APU), won Kelantan State, the cracks in the relationship started to emerge. The main problem with Semangat 46 was: it was a party of Umno has-beens. Compounding this was the fact Semangat 46’s members and leaders could not shed their Umno culture and brought it with them into Semangat 46.

Semangat 46 toured the country claiming it was the real Umno and that Umno Baru was in fact a “pirated copy”. The reason their party was called Semangat 46, argued its leaders, was because they wanted to revive the spirit of 1946, the year Umno was formed. Their struggle, claimed its leaders, was to revive the old Umno and oust the pretender to the throne, Umno Baru.

Semangat 46 had a new partner, PAS, but it continued to talk about its old partner, Umno. It is like being married to a new wife but constantly talking about your old wife, even calling out her name at the most passionate of moments. I am sure PAS felt insulted, as any wife would when you call out your previous wife’s name at point of climax. It did not take long for Semangat 46 to divorce its new “wife” and go back to the old one, though it had denounced Umno Baru as a fake and swore it would never reconcile may they die and be reborn.

PAS was now a lover scorned and that one bitter episode is something it would take a whole generation to get over. Its bad trip with Semangat 46 was not its first one though, for almost 20 years before that it had joined Barisan Nasional (BN) and had experienced the hurt of betrayal. Umno had invited PAS into the BN marriage only to cripple it once it was part of the government. PAS took a long time to recover from that, but now, not only has it fully recovered, but it is also on top, way ahead of Umno in the fight to win the hearts and minds of the Malay voters.

Since then, PAS never looked back. It has been uphill all the way for the party and it has not even reached the peak yet. After Kelantan came Terengganu. It almost grabbed Kedah as well and it probably only needs an election or two more to not only add Kedah to its list of states under Malay opposition control, but possibly Perlis as well. And who knows, with the right formula, it could even see a measure of success in Selangor and Pahang as well.

Now PAS no longer has Semangat 46 as its bedfellow. Semangat 46 is long dead and buried. In its place is Parti Keadilan Nasional. But the question on PAS’ lips is, while Semangat 46 was a reincarnation of Umno, is keADILan, in turn, a reincarnation of Semangat 46? Semangat 46 certainly displayed serious symptoms of gila talak. KeADILan has to make sure it does not show signs of this same illness. And whatever it says and does must be tempered with this in mind. PAS cannot go beyond where it is now without the help of keADILan. This it knows and it has no reservations of admitting. But it is still quite comfortable where it is even if it can go no further. But the same thing cannot be said for keADILan. KeADILan, therefore, needs to know which side its bread is buttered lest it fondles the wrong side and get sticky fingers.