The New PAS: Re-defining the Future of Islamist Politics

• Main Author: Yang Razali Kassim
• Other Authors: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
• Format: Commentary
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/82352; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/39935
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

IF THE trend from the recently-concluded internal elections of Malaysia’s PAS holds, the reform drive currently under way in the Islamist party could significantly impact not just its leadership but also more than the future of political Islam, or Islamist politics, in the country. Through secret ballot, the party rank-and-file fortified the ongoing shift away from orthodoxy, while carefully preserving the collective charisma of the ulama class of senior religious scholars. If the last party elections two years ago started this reformist trend with the rise to prominence of the technocrats and professionals, the 53rd muktamar or general assembly saw the emergence of a new breed of clerics with a reformist image – the “young ulama”.