PAS: Permuafakatan Politik Sebagai Tapak Integrasi dan Peranan Wanita (PAS: Political Consociation As Platform of Integration and Women’s Role)

Abstract

In Malaysia, the majority of political parties are organised along racial lines. These resulted in political rivalry, power struggle and to stand out as a champion of the party representing a certain ethnic. Therefore, in a multi-ethnic society, competing political parties need to get the votes from people from diverse etnicities to form a government. Political coalitian or political alliance is seen as an effective strategy to achieve this objective. This strategy was utilised to initiate a few political coalitions that negotiated and worked together to form a government.. This political alliance became the unifiying space for the race-based political parties to put aside their underlying interests and work to achieve a better well-being for Malaysians. Party Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) is a Malay majority and an Islamist political party. It has participated in several political coalitions. PAS managed to win higher votes in the elections compared to when the party was stand alone. Members of PAS including women fully support the decison made by the party leaders to form coalitions. This article aims to trace PAS’s position in the political alliance and the role of PAS women as the party engages in political coalitions.