The latest episode surrounding the planned rally against so-called “illegal” houses of worship lays bare just how little PAS truly values its smaller Perikatan Nasional (PN) allies.

Despite open and repeated protests from both Gerakan and the Malaysian Indian People’s Party (MIPP) calling on PAS and Bersatu to prevent their members from joining or supporting the rally, PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari simply brushed off their concerns. He declared the rally should proceed “without fear or obstruction” and dismissed their objections as irrelevant to the party’s agenda.

Gerakan’s vice-president G Parameswaran criticised the event as a misuse of the Peaceful Assembly Act that risks inflaming racial and religious tensions. MIPP took the extraordinary step of writing to both PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang and Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin urging them to forbid participation. Yet Fadhli publicly made it clear that PAS will go ahead regardless of these protests.

This moment should be understood for what it truly is: a political slap in the face to Gerakan and MIPP. Their objections did not matter enough even to be entertained, much less acted upon. PAS effectively signalled that their voices carry no weight in shaping party strategy or coalition decisions. PAS’s message was blunt: your views do not alter this rally or our priorities!

This snub comes as PAS openly prepares to tighten its grip on PN, with the Islamist party’s secretary general Takiyuddin Hassan already indicating that a senior PAS figure is being lined up to take over the coalition’s chairmanship. The message is clear. PAS is not negotiating. PAS is positioning itself to take control and steamroll the rest.

This is not a partnership of equals. It is a coalition where PAS calls the shots and the smaller parties are expected to fall in line or be ignored. That dynamic is exactly why Gerakan and MIPP are so desperate to block any move that places PAS at the helm of PN. They know that under PAS’s leadership they will not only be sidelined, they will be treated as inconsequential political passengers whose only real use is to provide a veneer of multi-ethnic breadth.

In contrast to Bersatu under Muhyiddin, which tolerated and accommodated non-Malay partners to project inclusiveness, PAS does not bother with such pretence. The rally episode reveals PAS’s willingness to march forward with an agenda that many see as racially divisive and politically provocative.

Gerakan and MIPP’s objections were not taken seriously enough to even avert public comment from PAS leadership, much less to affect policy. That stark power imbalance underscores the real reason both parties dread PAS leadership, as under PAS, they have neither influence nor security, only the risk of irrelevance or political damage.