Creating Cadres: Mobilization, Activism and the Youth Wing of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, PAS

Since the 1999 general election's, when it emerged with the most impressing performance in Malaysian political history, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS, has elicited significant scholarly attention. This has resulted in the production of a wealth of information about the party's origins and evolution. Yet, while most observers of Malaysian politics note that, next to UMNO, PAS is the most organized and well-resourced political party in the country, there remains a dearth of knowledge about the internal workings of PAS, and specifically, how the party developed, maintained and mobilizes its impressive machinery. This paper aims to unpack the puzzle of the nature of PAS's mobilization by studying the party's youth wing (also known as PAS Youth). Through the conceptual framework of resource mobilization theory and a detailed study of milestone events in the party's recent history, the paper argues that the youth wing has played a pivotal role in defining the party's identity as well as its political triumphs. At the same time, however, its integral role within PAS has meant that the challenges confronting the parent party have undoubtedly rebounded upon them as well.