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With additional reporting by Zul Othman and Ansley Ng, TODAYONLINE With all eyes now on who's in and who's out in the Malaysian general election, opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) has unveiled a fresh face that is bound to attract much attention: Its first non-Muslim candidate.
Ms Kumutha Rahman, a 29-year-old law graduate, will be contesting the state seat of Tiram, the party said yesterday as it announced the list of PAS candidates in Johor. PAS, which lost all the seats it had contested in the state in 2004, will be vying for 34 state and nine parliamentary seats this time. However, Ms Kumutha will be contesting the Tiram seat, which is considered to be the ruling Barisan Nasional's stronghold, under Mr Anwar Ibrahim's Parti Keadilan Rakyat's symbol due to an electoral pact between the two opposition parties, reported New Straits Times. As expected, the first-timer attracted a host of questions from reporters who were keen to know how a non-Muslim would operate within PAS. Will she be able to speak the language of the party, where Arabic phrases and Quranic verses matter most? Will she have to physically cover herself more than ever? "I know I won't feel alienated because I believe voters nowadays are open-minded," Ms Kumutha said. "I also know that Muslims and non-Muslims will be able to accept me." A member of the one-month old Unity Bureau under the Johor non-Muslim Pas Supporters Club, Ms Kumutha said she joined the club because "I see that PAS is not bent on racialism". Apart from Johor PAS, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), a member of the ruling coalition, in Johor also revealed several new faces among its line-up. They include Mr Chua Tee Yong, son of former Malaysian Health Minister Chua Soi Lek; lawyer Tay Puay Chuan; university lecturer Hou Kok Chung; and former state assemblyman Wee Jeck Seng. The 31-year-old Mr Chua, a chief financial officer, will contest in Labis, formerly held by his father before the latter was forced to resign from his Cabinet and party posts following his DVD sex scandal. Besides Mr Chua, all the new candidates are in their 40s, signalling MCA's move to recruit and field younger candidates to reach out to a younger electorate. Mr Lim Tah, MCA's executive secretary in Johor, said the candidates were chosen from "all walks of life". "This is a plan to reach out to and attract the younger voters, as well as to inject new blood into the party." Up north in PAS-controlled Kelantan, yet another son is about to rise. Sources at PAS in Kota Baru told Today that Dr Mohamed Fadzli Hassan, a 39-year-old former assistant professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia, is one of the new candidates to contest in the March 8 polls. Dr Fadzli, son of one of Kelantan's most prominent politicians, Mr Hassan Mohammed, is tipped to run in Temangan district, previously held by his father. When contacted, Dr Fadzli was quick to downplay talk that he was tapped only because of his family connections and his dazzling qualifications. "My father is happy about the news but he was concerned that people would say that I only received the nomination because I was his son," said Dr Fadzli.
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The Blogs 
While I still have trouble with Hadi Awang's reasoning that the Islamic State manifesto is not expressed because it is "understood" by the electorate, I appreciate that PAS has to protect its Islamic turf which forms the base of its supporters. But going forward, as UMNO becomes more racist and religiously intolerant, PAS should occupy the vacuum by standing on a platform of clean governance with Islamic values transplanted onto policies not through Syariah or Quranic verses, but through ingrained moral values of the politicians. There is really no need to wear the religion on the sleeve. What really matters is what's inside the politician that counts.
Apart from the above, it is also obvious that there are many schools of thoughts on the Quran, some are more moderate and acceptable to a pluralistic society. Slowly but surely, in order for PAS to be accepted as a national political force to be reckoned with, PAS must absolutely abandon proposals such as Hudud law that comes with stoning and amputation.
I find that PAS genuinely moving to the middle ground will resolve a lot of problems confronting the opposition, making them a viable coalition to be reckoned with in the long term and I hope they will keep going that direction. It is clean governance that wins support of the people, not reciting Quranic verses. Yes, sometimes soundbites are important, and perhaps that still works in rural areas, but PAS needs a more moderate and consistent voice to reach all electorates. In this day and age of internet, PAS just can't segregate its message to target specific crowds.
This is really a good opportunity for all opposition parties including mosquito parties to make the necessary sacrifices. There may be talk of renewal in BN, but the top leaders remain the same, and therefore the rot remains the same. It's just sons and daughters taking over their parent's business of embezzling the treasury.
There is only one way to clean up BN. Send them to retirement. Vote wisely. Vote oppposition.