Pakatan Rakyat's indecisiveness on the ongoing tussle over the word “Allah” will cause the opposition pact to be a "sitting lame duck" in the next three years, which might work to Umno's advantage, warned a key leader.
PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli said the opposition pact's reticence could be due to the results of a survey by Universiti Malaya’s Centre for Democracy and Elections last December which showed 77% Malays polled felt that the term "Allah" should not be used by non-Muslims.
This, despite the fact that Pakatan's stand for the past three years is that the term is not exclusive to any community, he said, a stand that had cost them votes.
"I don't think we can fault Pakatan leadership because a single not well-thought of statement can snowball to an even worse position," he said at an electoral forum last night.
However, he warned that if Pakatan continued to be indecisive and wishy-washy over its position, then they are falling into the hands of Umno and like-minded people who believed that playing up racial religious elements are the right formula to stay in power.
He said the Pakatan leadership needed to take charge and confront the matter as any position taken is better than allowing Umno to continue manipulating the situation.
"There is a need for serious soul searching and contemplation within PR leadership to find out how exactly we want to face this monster," he said.
In admitting that the task ahead was not going to be easy and might even cost them electoral support, Rafizi nevertheless felt if the current situation persists, even the enlightened section of society would lose hope.
After all, he said, there would be other issues or scandals that would arise in the next few years that would neutralise the loss of support.
Another way Pakatan can approach this is to press Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to honour his reconciliation pledge made in the aftermath of the 13th general election where he called for everyone to unite and reject politics of extremism.
"Pakatan has to decide on this very soon. Not doing anything will continue to plunge the country to further uncertainty and an volatile environment where irresponsible elements can poke fun at our sanity when it comes to race and religion," he said.
Tensions flared again late last year over the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims, which Muslim groups insisted was exclusive to Islam.
It culminated in a raid by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department at the Bible Society of Malaysia office in Petaling Jaya, where 300 copies of Bibles in Malay and Iban languages were seized, and two BSM officials arrested.
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called on Najib to make a stand on the controversy while declaring that he did not approve of Jais's “high-handed” ways.
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