Is Malaysia Going Down the Road of Pakistan?
Written by Farish A. Noor
Wednesday, 18 July 2007

The recent announcement made by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Tun Razak, to the effect that ‘we (Malaysia) are an Islamic state’ is mind-boggling to say the least. Speaking during a conference in Kuala Lumpur on the theme of ‘The Role of Islamic States in a Globalised World’, the Deputy Prime Minister claimed that Malaysia has ‘never been affiliated’ to a secular position that that Malaysia’s development ‘has been driven by our adherence to the fundamentals of Islam’. (Bernama, 17 July 2007)

One cannot help but wonder if this was a case of a cynical historical revisionism at work, for there is ample historical data to show that the opposite was the case, and that the forefathers of the Malaysian nation – from Tunku Abdul Rahman to his own father Tun Razak and Hussein Onn – were keen to ensure that Malaysia remained a constitutional democracy where the state would play the role of honest broker and govern a Malaysian public that was multi-racial and multi-confessional.

Furthermore the claim that Malaysia is an Islamic state is far-fetched to say the least according to the criteria of traditional Islamic legal orthodoxy and normative Muslim standards of ethics. Would an Islamic state condone the use of laws like the ISA that allow for detention without trial, or laws like the OSA and the Sedition Act? And does Islam explicitly talk about the need to create faith rehabilitation centres where Muslims and non-Muslims are interned to ‘convert’ them to the right (re. State-defined) practices of Islam?

The comments made by the Deputy Prime Minister would suggest a totalising discourse that fails to take into account the pluralism that is at the heart of the Malaysian nation and nation-building project. When he states that ‘we have always been driven by our adherence to the fundamental principles of Islam’, is he referring to the entire Malaysian population that includes not only Muslims but also Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and peoples of other faiths? Or by the term ‘we’ is he referring to the oligarchy of Malay-Muslim elites who man the helm of UMNO and the ruling National Front alliance that governs the country?

It is therefore not surprising to think that this was yet another case of a Malay-Muslim politician playing to the Malay-Muslim gallery the way that so many other Malay politicians have done in the past. After all, the declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic state was made earlier by former Prime Minister Mahathir; and it was also Mahathir and his former Deputy Anwar Ibrahim who spearheaded the Islamisation programme in Malaysia in the 1980s, taking the country further from its secular constitutional roots and towards a more communitarian register on the basis of Malay-Muslim identity politics.

At this crucial stage in Malaysian history where the Constitution has all but been forgotten, it would be wise to reflect on the mistakes made by other Muslim leaders elsewhere who have brought their countries to the brink of ruin by playing the ‘Islam card’. One country that comes to mind is Pakistan, which today is black-listed as a den of terrorism and has been cast as a pariah state internationally. Yet Pakistan’s slippery slide towards violent sectarian religious politics was not started by conservative Mullahs or even the military dictator General Zia ul Haq, but the secular leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

As soon as he came to power in 1971 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto launched his own ‘people’s revolution’ in Pakistan. While preaching his ideology of ‘Islamic Socialism’ (which Muammar Ghadaffi of Libya also claimed as his idea) Bhutto announced the immediate nationalisation of ten major industries, including iron and steel, basic metals, heavy engineering, petrochemicals and motor vehicles. Bhutto also introduced new legislation that was meant to improve the working conditions of the country’s illiterate and backward workers and peasants. These reforms were inspired in part by the example set by Colonel Muammar Ghadaffi of Libya, and Bhutto’s close contacts with China. During his trips to China, Bhutto had been advised by Mao Tze-Tung and Chao En-Lai to set up a ‘people’s army’ that would support his nationalisation project. The sudden and unexpected nationalisation caused the country’s already weakened economy to collapse completely, sending the stock market downwards and causing the flight of capital from the country.

Fearful of losing the support of the population, Bhutto then began to play the Islamic card as well. He assured the Islamist leaders that his own brand of ‘Islamic Socialism’ had nothing no do with Communism per se and that it was not an atheistic ideology. In 1972 he made a deal with the Jami’at-ul Ulema-i Islam (JUI) under Maulana Mufti Mahmood. Bhutto promised to allow Maulana Mahmood and the JUI to expand their activities in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) as long as they would support his own PPP party in the National and Regional Assemblies. He also promised Islamist parties like the JUI and Maulana Maudoodi’s Jama’at-e Islami (JI) that he would introduce new laws and constitutional amendments that would make Pakistan an Islamic state.

Zulfikar attempted to streamline the process of Islamisation in Pakistan via political and constitutional means. Like Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan before him, he tried to use the state as a means to control and patronise the religious powers in the country. In 1972 Bhutto managed to get Pakistan to host the second OIC summit in Lahore, in an attempt to bolster his own Islamic credentials. By virtue of the 1973 Constitution, the State was officially the guarantor of marriage and the family, the protector of the mother and the child and the guardian of equality before the law by formally prohibiting all forms of sexual discrimination. Yet, the third Constitution of Pakistan had received the tacit assent of one of the most vociferous opponents of Ayub Khan: Maudoodi himself. Maudoodi’s support in the early 70's was understandable for the reasons that the Constitution had for the first time declared Islam as the religion of the State; had imposed the preservation of religious ethos (by prohibiting prostitution, drugs and obscenity) and had laid down the official definition of a proper Muslim (which would serve as the basis for the excommunication of the Ahmadis in 1974). Furthermore, Bhutto had systematically purged his ex-allies from the radical Left with the expressed support of none other than Maudoodi. In return for these efforts of 'purification ' (particularly on the campuses of the country), Maudoodi gave his tacit endorsement to the 1973 Constitution.

But despite all these moves and concessions made in favour of the religious lobbies (including prohibition of alcohol, gambling etc.), the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, appeared to be theocratic in theory but secular in practice. This was the conclusion that the Islamist camp eventually came to by the mid 70's. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's PPP government was caught in a trap of its own making. The feudal Bhutto attempted to present himself as a democrat and a populist, and he introduced many radical policy changes that were destined to have a long-lasting impact on the country itself. He pushed Pakistan into the nuclear race even when it was clear that the country could not sustain such a project either economically or politically. His desire to entrench himself on the terrain of Pakistani politics led to a sustained assault on the country’s civil service and judiciary, and culminated in the formation of his own private para-military force (the Federal Security Force FSF).

Bhutto's crypto-socialist policies also led to the demoralisation of the ruling elite, many of whom took the opportunity to immigrate to the West. In one vital area this was to have a potentially dangerous effect: The higher ranks of the armed forces were no longer the exclusive purview of the ruling elite but was finally left open to the newly emerging urbanised middle classes, who were much more conservative and religiously inclined. In 1976 he picked the comparatively junior General Zia ul Haq as Commander in Chief, in an attempt to pre-empt any coup attempts by more senior generals. This would later prove his undoing.

Today, after decades of Islamisation at the hands of Pakistan’s Mullahs that went unchecked by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and later Zia ul Haq, Pakistan has become an outcast state there religious politics has proven to be divisive and detrimental to the plight of women, non-Muslim minorities and minority sects among Muslims. All of this could have been avoided by sticking to the secular principles of the Pakistani constitution, but that same constitution has been torn to shreds by successive politicians – including Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif – who found it expedient to play the ‘Islamic card’ whenever it suited them, just to garner some cheap votes at the elections. The rest, as they say, is history and that history now weighs heavily of Pakistan and its people.

Is Malaysia heading down the path of Pakistan? Well, at the moment Malaysia has several ‘Islamic’ features that even Pakistan does not have, such as the morality police squads, Islamic detention centres and the like. Thus far from being a model moderate Muslim state that naïve outsiders like Kofi Annan seem to admire so, we seem well on the path of an increasingly divisive, sectarian religiously-based politics that has spun out of control.

.... traveling among non-Arab Muslims, I found myself among a colonized people who had been stripped by their faith of all that expanding intellectual life, all the varied life of the mind and senses, the expanding cultural and historical knowledge of the world, that I had been growing into on the other side of the world. I was among people whose identity was more or less contained in the faith. I was among people who wished to be pure.

In Malaysia, they were desperate to rid themselves of their past, desperate to cleanse their people of tribal or animist practices, all the subconscious life, freighted with the past, that links people to the earth on which they walk, all the rich folk life that awakened people elsewhere cultivate and dredge for its poetry. They wish, the more earnest of these Malay Muslims, to be nothing but their imported Arab faith; I got the impression that they would have liked, ideally, to make their minds and souls a blank, an emptiness, so that they could be nothing but their faith. Such effort; such self-imposed tyranny. No colonization could have been greater than this colonization by the faith.

In the 20 odd years that I have been able to look at the situation for myself and form my own opinions, in my view, the divide between the races and the religions has grown wider. I personally believe that the govnt is using religion for its own benefits and it is in BN and therefore UMNO's intrest to keep these divisions. Islam in Malaysia has grown more radical and the use of force and intimidation to promote the agendas of Islam and to a much lesser extent Malays is still tolerated.

Death threats against Lina Joy and her lawyer were not investigated. Rowdy protests against Lina Joys appeal were tolerated. People on this forum, saying it served Lina Joy right for "rocking the boat" when all she's trying to do is practice the religion of her choice. The episode of intimidation of the non Malay Uni students by Malay students, shown on this forum, then escaping punishment from the university. The increased influence of the Syariah Courts. Members of Parliament forced to apologise for speaking out against the NEP when another member wasn't even significantly reprimanded for making a degrading remark against women(that MP that made the remark about womens menses).

Malaysia is a multi racial multi religious country, every religion and every race has their ideals. To unite the country, Malaysians need to see themsleves as Malaysians first, and their race and religions second. This applies to every race, Malay, Chinese and Indian alike. Singapore lives in relative harmony, why can't Malaysia?

I thinks Indonesia has more potential to become new Pakistan. And we are not proud of our past Hindu culture and not Indian to begin with. So for this I think Indonesia better fit for this accusations. Go back to your country firdausj. And bring Bung Karno too, he failed to invaded Malaysia before.....

VP insulted by syariah bylaw

MAKASSAR (Antara): Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Sunday he was offended with the emerging trend of syariah bylaw across the country as it only scared people with punishment from local government for any religious wrongdoings.

"We are instructed to implement syariah, obey God and His prophets. But syariah bylaw tends to force us to do our religious obligation based on the local government order," he addressed a Muslim organization gathering in Makassar.

Syariah bylaw would only scare people with punishment from the local government for any religious wrongdoings, he added. (***)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgenera...5848&irec=9

Betong, why do you tink that Indonesia is more likely to turn into another Pakistan before Malaysia?

It's true that Pakistan was once in India but it broke away from India. I know that many Indonesian intellectuals and spiritual leaders still remember and practise their indian religious spiritual practice (sufist strain of islam that originally arrived on the shores of Indonesia), and their elites are very strong in their cultural affinity with the Hindu past. But this doesn't mean Indonesia is going down the road of Pakistan? It seems you do not understand what is really happening in Pakistan with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism there.. the fundamentalists there wants to erase India from their minds and maybe one day from the map, who knows?

Do u not see what is happening there is similar to Malaysia's elites?

I think our Gov't position for this issue is clear ...

... find reasonable way to deal with that and in Malaysia we didn't have a problem with that. Our govt seem support the need of this group especially international matter, if I can say they most important caused of Islamic fundamental- Palestine Issues....

Malaysia in otherwise, has very functional law, Internal Security Act -ISA that can been used towards this kind of threat and we prove it in war against communism and plus we never had history of violance against outsider. Plus we have other think to do than keep thinking about bombing US bussiness.

So it better for us to say that Farish Noor accusations was unfounded.

Why I think that ??? Because of their govt. Their govt keep supressing this fundemantalist group and make them like they are today an extremist, bombing in Bali and other places in Jakarta are the prove, if I can say that. The rise of fundamentalist group always because of unability of their govt to listen to this kind of people and find reasonable way to deal with that and in Malaysia we didn't have a problem with that. Our govt seem support the need of this group especially international matter, if I can say they most important caused of Islamic fundamental- Palestine Issues....

Malaysia in otherwise, has very functional law, Internal Security Act -ISA that can been used towards this kind of threat and we prove it in war against communism and plus we never had history of violance against outsider. Plus we have other think to do than keep thinking about bombing US bussiness.

So it better for us to say that Farish Noor accusations was unfounded.

Dr. Farish Noor seems to see your "reasonable way" is to co-opt fundamentalist ideas to the government, which was what Pakistan did with grave result as their national politics succumbed to those ideas.

So what you're saying is that the govnt should compromise with the fundamentalisy groups? So what about fundamentalist Christian groups? Should the govnt compromise with them also so that they didn't become extrimist?

Malaysia does have a hostory of violence against "outsiders", racial riots. There are still some Malays who see non Malays as pendatang asing. There are Malaysian terrorists, and the govnt has closed down some Islamic schools deemed too radical, the schools that the Bali bombing masterminds came from.

Enough said, both of us, me and Dr Farish Noor agreed that we don't want Malaysia to be like Pakistan nowdays....
Extremist was bad regardless of any religion... In Malaysia we don't have the problem about extreminism....

Do you mean 13 Mei incident??? I see it as fight between two group??? How can it be it racial riots when it happen only in Chinese populated area, when Chinese attacked Malays in the first place, and Malays just defend their life. And Bali mastermind was UK educated guys, so must be UK was source of this problem according to your logic???? Both of them graduated from UK if I not mistaken and sure not from any pasentren or Islamic school.

....plus we never had history of violance against outsider. ..
So it better for us to say that Farish Noor accusations was unfounded.

So it started with Najib's statement, "msia is an islamic state". these kind of statements are very vague, uncertain, and controversial which could affect racial unity. (from what i know msia is secular state with islam as an official religion. correct me if im wrong. or maybe Najib should look up the dictionary and see what "secular" means) why are these munkeys getting away with saying all these stupid things. if other race say, they will shout "sedition!". I think najib is juz trying to divert attention from the altantuya case, OR trying to fix his somewhat broken reputation by trying to reach out to grassroot support (muslim malay).

Here's what Anwar Ibrahim had to say about Pakistan in his essay Universal Values and Muslim Democracy:


Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876–1948), the founder of Pakistan, was at
that time perhaps the most revered foreign leader among Muslims in
Southeast Asia. The affection was well placed given Jinnah’s commit-
ment to democracy, his abhorrence of corruption, and his stern warning
that the army should never leave the barracks. In 1947, he told the Con-
stituent Assembly of Pakistan that “the first duty of a government is to
maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of
its subjects are fully protected by the state.” Unfortunately, Jinnah did
not live long after Pakistan’s birth as a civilian and democratic state.
After his death, Pakistanis unfailingly and deferentially referred to him
as “Quaid-e-Azam” (the Great Leader), but his ideal of good gover-
nance and democracy has yet to be realized.
The future of Muslim democracy is now. The emergence of Muslim
democracies is something significant and worthy of our attention. Yet
with the clear exceptions of Indonesia and Turkey, the Muslim world
today is a place where autocracies and dictatorships of various shades
and degrees continue their parasitic hold on the people, gnawing away
at their newfound freedoms.

Malaysia is an Islamic state in principle, secular in practice.

That is the way how to sum both Malaysia & Islam in the country.

Malaysia is a secular society in the constitution.

Which undergone rapid Islamization values within the context of Govt. policies & politized Islam for the past 3 decades.

Hmmm, you're saying ...

Under BN, it is very difficult for Chinese to open a biz due to various licensing requirement from various govn dept including all the tips that we need to contribute but does not guarantee a license given. Under PAS, you just need to go to a one-stop-shop dept and pay a common-to-all fee for biz license. Also under PAS, pig farm is allowed as Islam allows for non-Muslim to rear their own food, unlike BN Terengganu where pig farm is not allowed. For ordinary people, that is a value that brought by Islam under PAS.

Wow. They allow pig farms in Pas Kelantan, but not in BN Terengganu?? And no hanky-panky licensing. My views towards PAS has slightly changed a bit.

Which undergone rapid Islamization values within the context of Govt. policies & politized Islam for the past 3 decades.

Hmmm, you're saying ...

In very recent times, the starting date for the study of Malaysia history in the schools has been conveniently fixed around 1400 CE. It probably coincides with the founding of the Sultanate of Malacca by Parameswara.

Today, Malaysia school children only learn a little bit about the early Proto malays and then are conveniently taken on a historical quantum leap to the founding of Malacca.

Early Indian works speak of a fantastically wealthy place called Savarnadvipa, which meant "land of gold". This mystical place was said to lie far away, and legend holds that this was probably the most valid reason why the first Indians ventured across the Bay of Bengal and arrived in Kedah around 100 BC.

Apart from trade, the early Indians brought a pervasive culture, with Hinduism and Buddhism sweeping through the Indo-Chinese and malay archipelago lands bringing temples and Indian cultural traditions. The local chiefs began to refer to themselves as "rajahs" and also integrated what they considered the best of Indian governmental traditions with the existing structure.

I learnt Malaysia history in the 1950s and taught it in the 1960s and 1970s in secondary schools. All the history textbooks at the time had the early Indian connection specifically mentioned in them. Teachers of that period taught about the early Indianised kingdoms of Langkasuka, Srivijaya and Majapahit that existed from as early as 100 CE.

Anyone can see that Parameswara, the founder of Malacca, has a clearly give away name that points to the Indian/Hindu influence. No one can deny this, and all our children need to know about this. They have the fundamental right to learn about this aspect of our history too.

Why don't our children learn about these early Indian connections today? It needs mention here that this early Indian connection has nothing to do with the much later cheap Indian "coolie" labour influx that the British brought over to man the railways and plantations of Malaysia from the late 19th century onwards.

The malay language as we know it today is already fully impregnated and enriched with many foreign words. This is good. Malay therefore has been a bahasa rojak from early times itself.

Rojak itself (and also cendul) is a Malaysia food developed by an Indian Malayalee Muslim community known as the Malabaris who hailed from Kerala. They were also referred to as kakas. We now wrongly credit the Penang mamaks for this great food.

The very word "Melayu" itself is most probably of Indian origin from the words "Malai Ur", which means land of mountains in Tamil. Singapur, Nagapur and Indrapur are very common Indian names that have similar backgrounds.

The early Indians were probably inspired by the main mountain range that looks like a backbone for the malay peninsula and thus named it Malaiur. The word "Malai" is undoubtedly Indian in origin as is the case with the word Himalayas and we all know where it is situated.

Many malay words, from describing malay royalty (Seri, Raja, Maha, etc) and common everyday terms (suami, kerana, dunia, cuma, bakti), all have Indian connections. The undeniable Indian connection in the word Indonesia is also reflected in the name itself.

The Indian factor that influences even the prevailing malay culture in terms of music, food, dress and certain other everyday practices like betel chewing and bersanding is another thing over which a loud hush prevails. Why?

Such knowledge of the roots of this great country, be they Indian, Chinese, Arab or whatever, can indeed very strongly facilitate the ongoing efforts of the government to make our children think of themselves as Bangsa Malaysia more readily and more easily.

Even so according to the constitution, Malaysia is NOT an Islamic state, neither should it be Islamic in principle. The fatehrs of its constitution were at pains to NOT make Malaysia an Islamic state, either officially or in principle. So what this is happening in Malaysia now is against the constitution.

Well, you ain't the one written or implementing policies in MY.

You hardly to judge which way MY should forge its destiny. One way or another, it still stay the same, in regard of Islam as the status quo, with secular implementations to keep things in balance.

A predominantly Muslim country that is truly secualr in practice is Turkey.

BTW Malaysia is NOT secular in practice.

Yet, it sacrifice basic democracy controlled by the military.
Oh yes we do. But of course, for political purposes, UMNO leaders ain't gonna admit that for fear of getting backlash from Muslim Malays & that will give PAS Islamist more leverages.

We've secular based education system, secular based finance system (alongside Islamic finance), secular based administration, with civil laws & governance. We've secular lifestyles even amongst Malays. We've secular based democracy system. Our multicultural society even represents secular outlooks.

Its just that MY Malays still much equate strongly with Islam, & Islam is a powerful political & social tool in MY.

Of course, as I said, MY is an Islamic state in principle, secular in practice.

I'm unaware of any social unrest in Turkey.

Malaysia is not a truly secular system. It can't be, Islamic laws are implemented and not all religions are treated equally. A truly secular society is one where the state and religion are completely seperate, in Malaysia its not.

I cant think of where this moron reek received his education, if he had any education at all. Pigs like you should be fed to other pigs, so your next generation will remain pigs.

...
This is because they are doing what Allah said....Allah told malays to come from Indonesia and steal the land from Orang Asli and use Orang Asli as slaves. So when is Malaysia giving priority to Orang Asli?
...

Your false fact is unacceptable but provoking others. I presume you are a chinese extremist Malaysian. I can make use of your religion text which I can get online or from the book store then manipulate the fact too if I want. I you are Buddhist, Confucians, Christian, Hindus or Taoist, I can do the same thing to these religion written text if I want. But I also consider other bumis religion too, they are Christian and Budhist. If you anti Umno, then why you generalise Malay. Do you think Malay only for Umno?. What about Malay in PKR and those who votes for chauvinistic DAP people like you in Penang? Even DAP chinese now also a bit tolerate to Malay now, and that is why Malay a bit confident to DAP chinese now.

It portrays your self as chinese extremist Malaysian and your ethnic about the agenda against Bumis. This attempt will make Bumis be more racist and phobia about your existence in this land. Your type of chauvinistic is still exist until today and will never absent from your ethnic, every where in the world, even in the smallest island in the Pacific Ocean. Just imagine if all people from your ethnic is your type. And I believe there are many people like your type outside there that explains why Bumis are so racist. If you really want the wind of change, why dont you just show your good attitude, discuss with proper manner and respect to them, then only they will respect your opinion and request.

Reek is also your type.

This pigboy is using so many names to call Malay as pig. He is not Malaysian anymore. He is an Australian living in Darwin. Please ignore this boy. He does not represent true Malaysian voice.