Islam as politics in Malaysia – Asia Times
September 30th, 2009
http://atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KJ01Ae01.html
PENANG – Two years after canceling her last scheduled concert in the country, US pop star Beyoncé announced earlier this month that she would perform in the Malaysian capital in late October. Her 2007 gig was cancelled after PAS – an Islamist party that forms part of the opposition coalition – threatened protests. “We are against Western sexy performances. We don’t think our people need that”, said PAS spokesman Sabki Yusof at the time.
Beyoncé’s about-turn comes despite a raft of piety-tinged controversies in recent weeks, including the Shariah law sentencing of a 32 year old woman and an Indonesian national to six lashes for drinking in public. The government did a u-turn of its own, rescinding a ban on Muslims – who make up around 60% of the population – from attending a Black Eyed Peas concert in Kuala Lumpur on September 26. That gig was part of a global series of events to mark the 250 year anniversary of the founding of Irish beer giant Guinness.
Guinness 250th anniversary banner on Penang island (Photo - Simon Roughneen)
While political Islam has recently gained traction and plenty of profile in Malaysia, there is no indication the trend could acquire the violent edge that marks counterparts in the Philippines, southern Thailand and parts of Indonesia. Some have noted that until recently Southeast Asia’s most wanted Islamist terrorist, Noordin Mohammed Top, was a Malaysian national. Noordin was killed in a shoot out with Indonesia’s counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, earlier this month.
Issues of political Islam – somewhere between “Western sexy” on the one hand, and jihadist terror on the other – are expected to weigh on Malaysia’s national discourse. The opposition PAS and ruling United National Malays Organization (UMNO) – the biggest party in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and long time dominant force in national politics – are now competing in a sort of a shariah-promoting race-to-the bottom while trying to maintain alliances with their wary political allies, including moderate Muslim Malays, Christian Chinese, Hindu Malay-Indians and other secularists.
Malaysia’s last elections, held in March 2008, made history by ending the BN’s two-thirds parliamentary majority, which the coalition had maintained throughout Malaysia’s post-independence history and ensured its dominance over the legislative process. The opposition, comprising the Chinese secular Democratic Action Party (DAP), PAS and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s Keadilan party, won 82 seats in the 222-member Parliament as well as control of five of Malaysia’s 13 states, including Penang, which the BN coalition lost control of for the first time.
Anwar made a play to get BN parliamentarians representing the states of Sabah and Sarawak to cross over to the opposition on September 16, 2008, the date marking the anniversary of when the neglected eastern states joined with peninsular Malaya to form Malaysia, in 1963 (Singapore seceded and became an independent country in 1965). That came and went without success, and since new Prime Minister Najib Razak took office in April this year, he has tried to claw back some of the lost electoral ground by making some changes to the New Economic Policy (NEP), an affirmative action program aimed to help Malays attain equal footing with more prosperous minority groups, but which many Malaysians feel has long been submerged in cronyism and graft.
Earlier this month Lim Guan Eng, chief minister of Penang and DAP secretary general told the Financial Times: “There is a chance [of the opposition winning a parliamentary majority], but it is not going to be easy. It is probably harder under Najib than under Abdullah [Badawi].” UMNO has been making efforts to woo Indian and Chinese voters, with rumors circulating that it will try to bypass its traditional ethnic-based partners in BN and set up its own Indian and Chinese wings.
On a similar, if contradictory vein, many believe that UMNO is upping the sectarian ante by taking a page from PAS’ political playbook and demonstrating more forcefully its shariah credentials. That strategy plays on a divide inside PAS between hardliners who want shariah prioritized and more realist types who see the need to reach out to moderate Muslims – as well as Chinese and Indians – if PAS and the opposition coalition are to have any hope of ultimately displacing the BN at the next elections.
Still the opposition coalition, known as Pakatan Rakyat (PKR), has been on something of a roll. Former UMNO minister Zaid Ibrahim recently switched sides and past Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA – the main Malay-Chinese member of the BN) leader Chua Jui Meng also defected. The PKR has taken seven out of eight by-elections held across the country, at both national and regional parliament levels, since the 2008 elections. Most recently, the PAS candidate took Permatang Pasir from the BN, a local constituency in Penang, and attracted significant Malay-Chinese support.
Malay-Chinese are the largest population group in Penang, and while support for PAS is likely just as much a vote against UMNO, PAS has previously acquired non-Malay, non-Muslim support in its own stronghold state Kelantan. Lena Leong is a politically-unaffiliated Penang-based partner at Zaid Ibrahim’s law firm. She told ATol that, despite mutual wariness and apparent incompatibility, “PAS and DAP can hold together until the next election.”
While the PKR faces a long and likely twisting road to the next elections, which must be held by 2013 but could be called earlier, UMNO and BN is struggling to make sense of a Malaysia where the new politics involves opinion-forming and issue-driving over the internet, by using alternative news sites and blogs, and bypassing the often-deferential pro-UMNO print newspapers.
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad wrote on his blog three weeks ago that the BN was heading for “the rubbish heap of history” unless it upped its game. Sim Tze Tzin is a Keadilan member of the Penang state legislature and an advisor to opposition leader Anwar. He told ATol that “BN and UMNO has not changed, even if its leadership has. Najib’s reforms are cosmetic and there is a lack of real substance.”
Najib is currently promoting his “One Malaysia” unifying theme – which PKR claims is derivative of its own commitment to transcending ethnic and religious differences. At the same time, Najib maintains that UMNO is a genuinely Islamic party. Such contradictions, analysts note, echo the opposites-attract composition of the PKR’s political alliance. Whether these contradictions can be maintained until the next polls, either within BN or across the entire country, remains to be seen. But either way Malaysia seems to be changing and it’s not clear that UMNO is keeping the pace. Another by-election scheduled for October 11 in Negeri Sembilan will show if Mahathir’s criticisms have stung UMNO into action, as the party squares-off against PAS for the vacant state legislature seat.
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Comment by andy fong — March 1, 2010 @ 7:28 PM | Reply
2.
We always recieved news messages from Myanmar people, they are complainted about committees of temple and please see at below.
Thanks
Dear Sir and Madam,
We are Myanmar group in Malaysia; we lived in Malaysia over decade and always went to one of temple in Taman Desa Jaya, Kepong, Kuala Lumpur and we were very sad and regreting with the committees of temple because they are using our monks in wrong conception of Buddhist teaching or Buddhist rules. We came to temple to help our monks and respected of our religion.
That temple is president of name:Yip Kum Fook, that our monks said and he is invited our monks from Myanmar to in charge of that temple but without pay anything to our monks, added he and his not respecting of our monks and sometime he ordered of his people to collected item such as paper, mineral water etc. without inform any words to our monks. In our religious believed we can’t take anything of holy place, if we done we are sin.
In pervious, our monk said the committees always asked money from him, when our monks gave RM20,000.00 in cash on 2001 to the committees, then committees keep silent, later committees make problem with our monk again and cancelled of our monk Visa permit to stayed in Malaysia, then our monks( Sadayaw Nandiya) go to Australia and our monk not come that temple at long time. “Yip Kom Fook gave our monk notebook computer for to cover of that amount of money our monk said”
Many local people around temple said, now no more people come to this temple because committees is always make problem and we are heard from local people said: Yip Kum Fook ordered of his people to put fire of Hindu temple at Taman Daya, Kepong because he needed that place to make his business about many years ago. “Everybody known what he done for Hindu temple at Taman Daya, Kepong”
Last time also he invited police to arrest the monks at holy place(temple) and locked the temple without afraid and shameful of people because he believed committee is big and has more authority, also his son always say to people: this temple is belonging of his father. “This temple donated from public, we are work hard for this temple”
This temple the committees always changed the monks, now they change the new monk to in charge of temple, this new monk also complaint the bad things of committees because committees also wait for donation box only, they without help anything to our monks. And committees controlled of our monks not to talk more or complaint more, our monks lived there as slaver and afraid of committees members.
In new building where remaining of Buddha statue marble; we have renovation of Buddha statue because that Buddha statue is put very low, we lift to highest the committees don’t like and unhappy. In our country, anyone be able to come temple to worship the Buddha but in Malaysia is different temple controlling by committees.
We hope everyone preserve of Buddhist teachings, and please safety of our monks, not see only money as this of temple. When we asked some of our people ( Myanmar) and local people, the committees are very low of idea because is very narrow mind and without education of religions. And committees will not disturbing of our monks, monks are like our father to take care of Buddhism and temple is like our place of resolving of our problem.
Recently, our monk(Sadayaw Ashin Indaka original from Madalay, Myanmar) has been staying in this temple also unhappy because the committees are not pay anythings to him, he is working in hardly to advise people and we also unhappy and very sad when heard the bad news from our monks. Sometime the committees people came and shouting in the temple without have any reason and done what they need to do, our monk said, the committees of this temple don’t have Buddhist teachings in their mind, may be next time Buddhist can destroy.
From Myanmar Buddhist group in Malaysia but many word complaint by local Buddhist community in Malaysia. If anyone receive of this message(email), please forward or send to your friends to protection Buddhism in Malaysia.
.-March 10th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Comment by heng — April 13, 2010 @ 10:38