Malaysia's Islamic opposition warms up to religious minorities

Malaysia's main Muslim opposition group is making new moves to cultivate support among ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities, who have long been suspicious of the party's ambition of creating an Islamic state.

The fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party said this week it has published 50,000 Mandarin-language newsletters explaining its policies to coincide with current Chinese Lunar New Year festivities, and launched a nationwide club for ethnic Indian supporters last week.

The measures — disclosed on the party Web sites and in e-mailed open letters from officials seen Wednesday — come as the party prepares for general elections it expects later this year.

However, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's multiethnic ruling coalition has not revealed whether it plans to hold snap polls before its mandate expires in mid-2009.

Nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 26 million people are ethnic Malay Muslims, but votes from the large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities — mainly Buddhists, Christians and Hindus — have helped the ruling coalition retain an overwhelming majority in many previous elections.

"Most non-Muslims in Malaysia have been programmed ... to feel horrified and prejudiced toward our party, which has been called extremist, backward and anti-development," Halimah Ali, an official in the party's national solidarity bureau, said in her e-mailed letter.

Efforts are needed to assure non-Muslims that the party "will not erode their rights in terms of culture, language and religion if it comes to power," Halimah added.

Party members recently handed out thousands of newsletters conveying Chinese New Year wishes and highlighting how the party has helped non-Muslims, including victims of severe floods that hit southern Malaysia in January, according to the party's Web site.

Chinese New Year bookmarks, calendars and greeting cards containing verses from the Quran, Islam's holy book, were being distributed as part of "icebreaking initiatives ... to channel information to non-Muslims and win their votes," Halimah said.

The party, commonly referred to as PAS, also launched a club for ethnic Indian supporters, bringing together an initial 50 members at a ceremony last Saturday.

"PAS can provide us shelter where (Abdullah's coalition) has failed," said the club's chairman, N. Gobalakrishnan. "PAS (leaders) have never been known to oppress other races."

The party's goal is to form a theocratic Islamic state. It holds only a handful of seats in the national parliament but has controlled Kelantan, one of Malaysia's 13 states, since 1990.

The party sought to implement strict Islamic laws in Kelantan that allow stoning, whipping and amputation, but those laws — which would only have applied to Muslims — were blocked because they clashed with the federal Constitution.


Malaysia PAS