Malaysia's Islamists reshape image to win allies

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's hardline Islamist party is reshaping its image ahead of widely expected early elections, trying to reach beyond its northeastern stronghold, but skeptics are looking for a true change of heart.

The party has lifted a ban on Western-style pop concerts, unveiled a seven-storey headquarters next to Kuala Lumpur's red-light district and last week voted in a crop of young moderate leaders over its more usual turban-clad clerics.

Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), a major opposition force until it was crushed in the last elections in 2004, is banking on the younger leaders to lure back Muslim Malay support and give the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi what it calls "a run for its money".

But the new crop were unlikely to alter the face of a party that wants to turn multireligious Malaysia into an Islamic state based on the Koran, analysts said.

"I don't see how the presence of these so-called 'Young Turks' will make any change to the fundamental policies of the party," said political analyst Chandra Muzaffar.

"I do not think PAS will move away from its commitment to an Islamic state. I don't think PAS will move away from hudud law."

The party would rely on the newer leaders to be more flexible in forging alliances with opposition parties, he added.

"The young ones are tactically more prepared to make some concessions to other actors in the political arena to secure an electoral pact or work out some sort of arrangement."

HALF-CENTURY IN POWER

Building alliances is key for the Islamists to pose a threat to Prime Minister Abdullah, whose multiracial coalition looks set to retain its 50-year grip on power in the polls, due in 2009 but possibly brought forward to early 2008. Islam is Malaysia's official religion although other religions can be practised. The Malaysian government boasts that its moderate, progressive brand of Islam has been the recipe for the country's fast-industrialising economy.

Non-Muslims are wary of the new Islamist leaders, saying they want to see more proof the party has changed its ways. "It cannot impose an Islamic agenda on a multiracial country," said one.

PAS appeals mainly to rural Muslim Malays and does not see eye-to-eye with the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the largest opposition party in parliament, which is backed by the sizeable majority of ethnic Chinese, over the Islamic state plan.

Analyst Muzaffar said the Chinese-backed party had once joined the Islamists in an electoral alliance in 1999, but was too unhappy at the way PAS had later redoubled its hardline behavior to want to repeat the experience.

"I don't think the DAP will be willing to risk another outing with PAS."

STONING TO DEATH

PAS has enacted Islamic hudud law in northern Kelantan, where it rules, to punish rapists and adulterers with stoning to death, while thieves lose their limbs. Constitutionally, the Federal government under Abdullah barred PAS from enforcing it.

Just half of Malaysia's 26 million people are ethnic Malays, who by definition are Muslims. Ethnic Chinese and Indians are either Hindus, Buddhists or Christians.

PAS deputy chief Nasharudin Mat Isa, 44, who represents the moderate leaders, said the party would continue its "policy of engagement" and market the party to the voters.

Its main election ally will be Parti Keadilan Rakyat, run by de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is also trying to put his own house in order.

After Malays rebuffed it, PAS, which once promised its supporters a place in heaven, has seven seats in the 219-seat lower house of parliament, down from 27 seats in 1999.

To lure back the Malays, PAS may harp less on religion and more on ethnic Malay rights and privileges.

"While religious campaigning has always been the core of PAS, I think they are also learning to use the notion of Malay rights," said Terence Chong, analyst at Singapore's Institute of South East Asian Studies.

One of Abdullah's biggest electoral tasks is to win back Kelantan, which PAS has ruled for the past 17 years.

"Abdullah would very much love to crown his premiership with a victory there," said one political analyst. "The way things look, PAS will remain in Kelantan. It will not cause any ripples anywhere else."