Helen Ang
Jun 3, 10
3:56pm
Malaysian involvement in the Gaza flotilla and Malaysia's response to the Israeli military operation against the pro-Palestinian activists both unite Umno, PAS and PKR in a cause beloved of the Muslim world.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad (left) and his Perdana Global Peace Organisation had raised over 300,000 euros to buy three boats for the Gaza expedition, reported the Perdana website. Six of the flotilla's Malaysian participants sailed to Gaza under the aegis of Perdana.
Some readers have wondered aloud about the lack of a similar national outrage to the atrocities committed in Myanmar, Sudan and Sri Lanka.
There is no mystery as it is quite natural that the Muslim brotherhood should be more concerned about the fate of their brethren. It is only the zealous proponents of universal brotherhood who mistakenly believe that this inclination of the ummah may be something unnatural.
"We are all one race, the human race" is a slogan to sell the idea that the various races on the planet should love each other. But perhaps what "we're all human" merely does is to remind us that we're not chimpanzees.
The inconvenient truth is that we are indeed various races and of various religions, and Malaysia is an ethnically fractured society where churches have been firebombed and Hindu idols destroyed.
As the passionate reactions to the Palestinian conflict have shown time and again, Malaysia is greatly sympathetic to Palestinian Muslims while vastly indifferent to Burmese Buddhists, Sudanese Christians and Sri Lankan Hindus.
The reason why is straightforward - Islam is the most defining characteristic of this land; two-thirds of the population are Muslim and ultimately everyone is free to pick and choose the cause closest to their heart. Malaysia does not vary from the rest of the Organisation of Islamic Countries in our close alignment with Palestine.
Notably, three successive prime ministers have declared Malaysia to be an Islamic state - and thus meriting our leading role in the OIC - although Najib Abdul Razak's declaration is more precisely that Malaysia has never been a secular country.
Islamising the country
The Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) asserts that Malaysia is a 'negara Islam' in a pamphlet issued in 2002. Jakim director-general Mohamad Shahir Abdullah was following up on the Islamic state affirmation by then prime minister Mahathir and his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
In the Jakim statement, Mohamad Shahir listed what he said was a series of proofs that the country is Islamic. Read it - it's in Bahasa Malaysia.
There are few voices today insisting that Malaysia is secular. Even Karpal Singh (right) who famously said "over my dead body" about the Islamic state status has been ominously silent of late.
Whereas the secretary-general of Karpal's DAP party, Lim Guan Eng, is loudly trumpeting the emulation by Penang of the governance of Caliph Umar Abdul Aziz. On May 20, Lim had been scheduled to officiate the opening of a surau in the state secretariat building Komtar, much to the chagrin of some in Umno Youth.
I'm more inclined to agree with the assessment of the three prime ministers past and present that Malaysia is somewhat an Islamic state since Islam is everywhere and anytime in the country. Or if we're yet to fully attain the Islamic state aspiration, there are many Muslims who see no reason why we should not.
For details on Islam as a state function, please read my articles 'Will minorities be made increasingly syariah-compliant?' published by the Centre for Policy Initiatives, and 'Rukunegara: M'sia not quite secular' on the variety of state Islamic agencies including those in the PM's department.
Funding spread of Islam
More and more concepts from Islam have been made familiar to us - Hadhari by ex-premier Abdullah, Amar Maa'ruf Nahi Mungkar by the Penang Pakatan state government, Raudhatul Sakinah in Putrajaya and it would seem Najib is making a foray into Islam Wasatiyyah branding.
More and more words of Arabic origin have crept into our common usage such as muzakarah, muhasabah and mujahadah, not to mention terms like takaful, sukuk and riba, now that several more financial institutions are offering Islamic banking and not just restricted to Bank Islam and Bank Muamalat.
Another indicator of the level of Islamisation is the Tudung Index.
Even the highest echelons of the church have at last publicly conceded the deep reach of Islam, in this particular case, into the pockets of the state treasury.
The remarkable pastoral letter recently penned by Bishop Hwa Yung, chairman of the Methodist church's council of presidents, contained the following pertinent observation:
"Indeed the problem in our country is that most of the money for religious bodies is usually given to one particular religious community, with relatively much smaller proportions given to other communities."
The tremendous disproportion in terms of allocation to the different religious communities can be explained by Article 12(2) of the federal constitution. It says: "... it shall be lawful for the federation or a state to establish or maintain or assist in establishing or maintaining Islamic institutions or provide or assist in providing instruction in the religion of Islam and incur such expenditure as may be necessary for the purpose".
It is the enabling mechanism for the government to disburse financial assistance to mosques and for activities promoting Islam. Tellingly, the article clauses omit any reference to Christianity and other faiths in this regard.
Most are unaware of Article 12(2). Evidently, the people touting 'Malaysian First' are on the mistaken footing that the country does not make any distinction between its citizens. Malaysia most clearly distinguishes its citizenry one from another, and even coined the word 'bumiputera' for this purpose.
Islam impacting minorities
Yesterday Malaysiakini carried an article about convert Faris Syafi Abdullah who lamented the difficulties faced when one wishes to renounce Islam.
Another convert in the same boat is Faizal Wong Abdullah (right). I've written in greater detail about the trend of Chinese, especially those in the civil service, to embrace Islam, in my 'Syariah-compliant' article cited earlier.
In it, I also discussed the breadth and reach of syariah law, its rigorous application and how easily fatwa can be legislated to carry harsh penalties as well as the Malaysian authorities strenuously rendering the adherents of Islam a monolithic block.
As for the increasing number of Indian converts to Islam, there are the controversial issues surrounding this development.
It is not only PAS and Umno that have been ramping up the Islamisation process but the Raja-Raja Melayu flexing their muscles through political Islam too.
We're living in a country where to question the monarchy and 'special position' of the Malay (whose identity is conflated with Islam and whom the royals are constitutionally empowered to protect) is seditious and can land you in jail.
'1Malaysia' is Najib's propaganda. 'Malaysian First' is Lim Kit Siang's rhetoric. While denizens of Bangsar Malaysia (spelling deliberate to allude to the affluent suburb) may buy into 1Malaysia1st, the decision of the majority G1 Chinese to send their children to vernacular school speaks volumes of the latter's inherent skepticism.
G1 is the group to whom "Chinese education is part of their socio-cultural life and even their identity as a race" whereas the English-speaking, Western-oriented G2 category are "vocal, articulate, often Christian, and likely to be from a professional class" - ref. quotes attributed to the MCA think-tankers of Insap and Insap's G2 "thoroughbred" CEO, Fui K Soong.
Methinks the G2 doth protest too much. How can these Malaysian First-ers credibly reconcile their 'one united country' mantra in the face of the facts above?
Aside from Chinese, more Indian parents are enrolling their children in vernacular Tamil schools than before. The wariness of the minorities for national school and its attendant Malay environment will not be allayed so long as Islamism is a pervasive feature of the education system.
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