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e Battle of Bangi 195

UMNO, and Bersatu. In this section, rst, I brie y discuss these political
parties, especially PAS and Amanah, both of which contested the state seat
of Sungai Ramal, the main case study of this chapter. en, I explore three
key Muslim organisations that are closely linked to these parties, as well as
a few Muslim preachers who are either directly or indirectly a liated with
the parties (Hew 2018a). Mapping out the interactions among these actors,
I argue that they comprise two loose coalitions, both consisting of political
parties, Muslim organisations, and preachers, each o ering a vision of political
Islam and seeking to secure Malay support.
Founded in 1951, PAS is the oldest Islamist party in Malaysia. e party
has transformed itself repeatedly over the years, its ideological foci ranging
from anticolonialism, to communalism, to democratization (Noor 2014).
e party congress and election of 2015 saw a heated contest between a
relatively progressive faction and a more conservative faction within PAS. e
conservative faction, led by party president Tuan Guru Hadi Awang, secured
a landslide victory, while the progressive faction was wiped out from party
leadership. With the progressive faction ousted, PAS leaders asserted the
party’s commitment to implement hudud (criminal punishments under sharia,
Islamic law), took a more communitarian tone and exclusionary stand on a
number of issues, and eventually broke up with DAP in the Pakatan Rakyat
(PR, People’s Pact), leading to the collapse of that coalition.
In GE14, positioning itself as a ‘third force’ and kingmaker, PAS was
struggling to keep its support base intact and ensure it remained Malaysia’s only
in uential Islamic party. Besides Kelantan, Terengganu, and Kedah, Selangor
is another state in which PAS has a strong base among Malays, its supporters
ranging from blue-collar workers to the middle class and professionals. On
many occasions, PAS ulama (religious scholars) and ustaz (religious teachers)
have declared that PAS is the only party upholding an Islamic agenda in
Malaysia, claiming ‘Undi PAS, dapat pahala’ (‘Vote PAS, gain rewards in the
afterlife’), implying that a vote for PAS is akin to buying a ticket to heaven. Even
though the PAS manifesto does not highlight the controversial parliamentary
bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (better
known in public debate on hudud as RUU355), PAS leaders often mentioned
it in ceramah to justify the party’s split from PR and its criticisms both of DAP
for ‘not respecting Islam’ and of Amanah for ‘being liberal’ (in that they did
not support the bill Hadi Awang tabled).
e enactment of RUU355 was a contentious issue. PAS leaders have
publicly reiterated that the main aim of the proposed amendment was
not hudud, but merely the strengthening of existing sharia laws, while

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