 | | Analysts say PAS's revamped policies before the elections won the support of Malaysian voters. (Reuters) | KOTA BHARU, Malaysia — The new image and revamped inclusive policies on minorities helped the Islamist party (PAS) make big gains in the general elections, winning more seats and states. "The new PAS agenda was more appealing," Shahruddin Badaruddin, a political analyst, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Sunday, March 9. "As a result, there was a coming together of forces in the various states as the Malay swing against the government coincided with big swings in the Chinese and Indian communities, something which has never happened before." PAS won 23 seats in the 222-strong national assembly, up from just seven in the outgoing legislature. In the 12 state elections, the party secured three of five provincial assemblies wrested from the ruling National Front coalition. In the northern state of Kelantan state, which PAS has ruled for the past 18 years, the party increased its majority edge winning 38 of the 45 seats. PAS now commands a two-thirds majority instead of the slim two-seat margin won in the 2004 elections. The snap elections saw opposition parties PAS, Keadilan and the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party dealing a humiliating defeat to the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi. The NF coalition lost its two-thirds majority in the federal parliament for the first time since 1969. Inclusive  | | "We must now try and unify and bring the races together and to pursue a more mainstream agenda," said Husam. | Analysts say it was PAS's revamped policies before the elections which won over new supporters. "There was a big shift in PAS's attitude by dropping any mention of plans to set up an Islamic state," said Shahruddin. The PAS government in Kelantan has lifted a 15-year ban on the popular games of snooker and billiards and allowed cinemas to operate -- although with the lights on to prevent any unseemly behavior. A walk down the dusty streets of the state capital Kota Bharu sees mosques located next to Buddhist temples, and veiled Muslim girls chatting with their short-skirted non-Muslim friends. Non-Muslims are openly sell roasted pork, which is forbidden under Islam, in the state. It also fielded more youth and women candidates in Sunday's polls, including Kumutha Rahman, a Hindu. "This signaled their need for support from non-Muslim voters who did not disappoint them, and backed what is an essentially Islamic government," Tricia Yeoh, from the Center for Public Policy Studies think tank, told AFP. Shahruddin agreed that PAS's greater acceptance of ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities was a major victory factor. "PAS will now have to tread a much more moderate line in ensuring that they can form a coalition with the DAP," he added. "If they can do this, there will for the first time be a viable opposition coalition facing off the government in parliament." PAS officials are signaling a desire for a unified opposition front. The party's vice-president Husam Musa hoped opposition parties would put aside their differences and form a powerful coalition in the state assemblies they won. "We must now try and unify and bring the races together and to pursue a more mainstream agenda." | 
