Southeast Asian voters are pushing traditionally conservative parties to moderate their platforms.

Malaysia's ruling United Malays National Organization garnered support from an unusual place last week—40 Muslim ulamas, or religious scholars. The move was significant because hitherto UMNO has been viewed as a predominantly nationalist, race-based political party voicing the views of the Malay-Muslim ethnic majority. Yet the lesson its took from its 2008 electoral drubbing wasn't to capture the center, but to move significantly to the right.

This is an extraordinary shift. In the past, UMNO leaders have often contrasted their multiracial credentials—especially their cooperation with non-Malay allies in their National Front coalition—with the insularity and exclusivism of the ulama-led Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, known by its acronym, PAS. That centrist pitch has helped keep UMNO in power since 1957.

Yet post 2008, the party clearly figures its electoral future lies in capturing the majority Muslim Malays, to the exclusion of the Chinese, Indian and other minorities. This year, it was the UMNO-led Federal Government that opposed the use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslim Malaysians—a heated issue that led to attacks on churches. The government also had several Muslim women caned for "immorality."

These policies have left UMNO's non-Malay National Front allies parties in the lurch. The coalition's support from minorities is at an all-time low.

Associated Press

Meanwhile, Malaysia's more traditional and avowedly Islamic political parties are taking advantage and tacking to the center. PAS, the "party of the ulama," has confounded observers with its determination to win non-Muslim support. After enjoying some success at the expense of UMNO in the 2008 general elections, it entered into an opposition coalition with a predominantly socialist and non-Muslim party, the Democratic Action Party, along with Anwar Ibrahim's multiracial People's Justice Party.

This strategy has accelerated PAS's thrust into mainstream politics, as the opposition now has to deal with the full range of national issues—all the while becoming more pluralistic and accommodating than UMNO. To the amazement of many, PAS has accepted use of the word "Allah" by non-Muslims. Its recently concluded annual general meeting saw it set up a "supporter's wing" for non-Muslims. Party President Hadi Awang—long seen as an ethnic nationalist cum religious fundamentalist—also made a strong plea for multiculturalism.

It doesn't hurt that many Malaysians see PAS as disciplined and "clean" compared to the other parties' reputations for venality and corruption. This, however, has been tarnished by the party's lackluster record in governing the northern state of Kelantan where they have ruled for almost 20 years. PAS also has internal problems: Factionalism is rife, especially between its traditional ulama and the moderate technocrats who engineered the party's modernization. Many of the former, led by Mr. Hadi, have expressed reservations about the party's progressiveness, especially in light of UMNO's increasing atavism.

Malaysian parties aren't alone in struggling for the Islamic vote; parallels with Indonesia are the most noticeable. There, all major parties have acknowledged and embraced "Islamic" causes. Indeed, former President Megawati Sukarnoputri's nominally secular Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, has even set up a Muslim wing, the Baitul Muslimin. President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono's ruling Democrat Party recently elected Islamist-activist Anas Urbaningrum, with his extensive networks throughout the republic's Muslim communities, as its head.

And just like in Malaysia, Indonesia's conservative Islamist party, the Prosperous Justice Party, or PKS, is also trying to push into the mainstream. At its own recent national congress PKS members similarly agreed to open membership to non-Muslims. The party also organized a forum on the Gaza issue, but significantly enough invited the American ambassador to speak at a seminar on U.S. views on Islam. Party leaders furthermore extended a surprise invitation to two celebrities currently embroiled in a sex scandal to join the party.

These moves parallel the way, nearly 30 years ago, that Mr. Anwar, then a firebrand populist, was brought into UMNO under former strongman Mohamed Mahathir's guidance. His arrival heralded an intensification of UMNO and PAS's battle to claim the Islamic mantle. Still, it remains to be seen whether this strategy will pay off in terms of votes. Many commentators have characterized the strategies as merely political marketing, and not true shifts in tactics.

The ultimate arbiter of which version of Islam wins out is ultimately the voter. In Indonesia, PKS and other Islamicist parties have failed to crack the strength of the main nationalist parties, Golkar, the party of former strongman Suharto, and Ms. Megawati's PDI-P. This setback may have sparked the move to the center more than any deeply held pluralistic convictions. Likewise in Malaysia, PAS and the other Islamicist parties' ability to strike a balance between maintaining their base and moderating to the political center will determine their long-term success.

Indeed, the broader lesson may be that the now-mainstream nature of political Islam might imply there is no need for avowedly Islamist parties.

Mr. Raslan, a syndicated columnist and consultant, is the author of "Ceritalah 3: Malaysia a Dream Deferred" (Marshall Cavendish, 2009).

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