Malaysiakini : The interview is also indicative of how PAS is in control of PN, and Bersatu is merely the fig leaf of moderation that PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang really has no use for. This is why Bersatu and Gerakan for instance always attempt to downplay the green wave.

The fact is that Hadi, who is adept at using propaganda more than his coalition partners, has no problem claiming that all these progressive Muslims are going to be swept away by the green wave.

Of course, Hadi knows that progressive Muslims in this country do not really have a platform or much political power, to begin with, but as long as there are non-Muslims in the political arena, and they are capable of forming coalitions with recalcitrant (in Hadi’s view) Malay parties, the Islamic state project would be a little (but not much) harder to achieve.

Faizal said Bersatu is not playing second fiddle to PAS but Bersatu scrambling for funds and PAS claiming that they will help them out is demonstrative of how powerful PAS and its money are within PN. 

“PAS has a lot of money. If Bersatu has no money, we will give them money. The fact is, PAS does not need a lot of money (to contest in polls). I personally used only a few thousand ringgit of my own money when contesting in the election. The rest were contributed by PAS members. So, what can we say?”

Sheraton Move

Lim Kit Siang and a host of other DAP leaders take umbrage of Faizal’s revisionism when it comes to the Sheraton Move, but this is exactly the kind of wacko theory that the base eats up.

Never mind that Dr Mahathir Mohamad who has said many contradictory things about his role in the Sheraton Move said this about the party that Faizal is a part of:

“The effect of Bersatu supporting PAS and Umno is that parties that have lost will form a government. This government will be dominated by Umno, as it is the biggest party. I am willing to accept Umno members who left Umno and joined other parties. But if Umno joins this unity government as a party, this I am unable to accept. Therefore, I was compelled to resign.”

Faizal said that “for ‘statesmen’ like Mahathir and Kit Siang. When they made such statements, you really have to read into what they are saying.”

Fair enough then, Faizal should understand that the old maverick admitted complicity in the Sheraton Move but it backfired on him when his minions decided to make a play for the throne of Putrajaya: “At the time, I did not object as I thought this would strengthen my position and enable Bersatu to become a stronger member of Harapan.

“Much later, I realised that what was actually taking place was a stealth campaign to separate me from the rest of the Harapan government.”

Now, of course, Faizal is part of another coalition where Bersatu is playing handmaiden again. The fact is that while Faizal may think he is a “nobody”, he is exactly the kind of cunning but folksy political operative that the theocratic state needs. The fact that he could backstab his own partners is a feature not a flaw for these people.

Of course, Faizal would defend Hadi’s rants against the DAP. He has made it very clear what he thought of DAP.

From reportage: “In Perak, I am fighting a desperate battle alone against ‘puak-puak’ (factions of) DAP.

“I want to defend the land of the Malays, I want to champion our religion,” he tells a group of people during an informal discussion.

“(But) I do it, slowly. Alhamdulillah (thank God), my Umno friends (in Perak) do not scold me like this,” he added.

Political operators

Faizal claims he was taken out of context but the reality is that these ketuanan (supremacist) types really do not like to share power with the non-Malays, especially the Chinese.

The weltanschauung (worldview) of mainstream political operators like Hadi and Faizal are not worlds apart.

Both seek to use the DAP as a proxy for the Chinese community. Both seek to reinforce racial and religious narratives that seek to confine the role of non-Malay political structures to that of the handmaid of Malay powerbrokers.

What mainstream Malay power structures and the far-right have done so effectively is to define egalitarianism and secularism as uniquely non-Malay “rights”, thus in direct opposition to whatever Malay “rights” are peddled by factotums from the political elites.

Folks like to say that the Umno base abandoned Umno because of corruption but the reality is that who they voted for were all Umno people (Bersatu) and what the hardcore base wanted was a makeover.

It is easy to make fun of Faizal because this is exactly what he wants you to see. He understands that as an apparatchik of an Islamic state, he would reap the benefits of racial and religious privilege.

These are exciting times for political operatives like Faizal. He is still young enough to hang on to the coattails of older political operatives, but he understands that he would inherit the system they are attempting to redefine.

Some folks like to think that Khairy Jamaluddin could be a barometer of change. But the reality is that people like KJ (who I said people should vote for - hey what can I say, I have no trouble admitting I was wrong) will probably end up as talking heads for people like Faizal in an Islamic state articulately justifying the malfeasances of political operatives while the mullahs suppress democratic norms and inclinations of the populace.

These people are the shape of things to come.