UMNO uses Islam without explaining to continue in power

UMNO uses Islam without explaining to continue in power

THE GATHERING OF THE converted met yesterday (12 March 2006) to
discuss the inexhorable move in Malaysia to be an Islamic state. No
governmnent or official representative was there to give its view.
That is not to say no UMNO representative was there. He was, but to
chart his own support base outside UMNO, after his suspension as an
UMNO member. Would he have said what he did had he been in the good
books of the party? He got claps and cheers but did he mean what he
said? Would his speech have been different had he been an official
UMNO representative? No official explanation is given at the best of
times for moves taken about Islam and its role in Malaysia. Every one
shies of discussing it, is presumed not to discuss it, especially by
non-Muslims. So, Malaysia becomes Islamic by default. The non-Malay
political parties in the National Front will not discuss, even with
UMNO, and will agree with any moves on Islam that UMNO takes. As they
did, as they would do if pesky questions about it are asked by
opposition members of parliament.

So publicly, the non-Muslim parties in the National Front agree with
UMNO's move to make Malaysia an Islamic state – they would not be in
the cabinet otherwise – but privately look to NGOs and others to
persuade them to oppose it. What was discussed then was not new, but
it came too late for it to be useful. But is this how the position of
religion should be discussed? It is now an issue even with the Malay-
Muslim community. But the National Front government keeps mum as it
turns the country Islamic. The constitution is turned upside down,
with the Malay version made the primary version, although it was
translated into Malay more than 20 years later, and the words have a
different meaning when translated into Malay. At the discussion
yesterday in Petaling Jaya, one example was given: precepts have been
translated into Malay as order. In a dispute, the Malay version holds
supreme, so the English meaning is ignored, although that was not the
intention of the framers.

At the same time, the Malays, constitutionally Muslims, have accepted
as untouchable by the non-Muslim any moves to make Malaysia more
Islamic, not on legal principles but on what they think it should
be. They may decide otherwise in private, but in public they show a
different face, that of the mob, to force Islam and its precepts on
the non-Malay. This is challenged by Malays and non-Malays alike, but
usually in secret. The speakers at yesterday's forum, including
Muslims, said the Malay ground had this fixation that Islam was not
allowed to be discussed by the non-believers, who must accept what is
given them. History is suspended – whatever the struggle for
independence, Malaya would not have got it had not the Malaysian
Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress joined with the
UMNO. Today, officially the non-Malay is a lesser breed, and their
leaders accept it.

But such gathering as yesterday's would not matter as it is of
outsiders in Kuala Lumpur. Some speakers said that similar groups in
the state should be enouraged to agree with their views. That is
dangerous. There should already be such groups there, in tandem with
the capital, that could be brought together to form a united bloc.
Any attempt to form it will play into the National Front's scheme of
things. This gathering was allowed because the people's problems are
put into constitutional focus. It was academic, at best, and what was
discussed would never see the light of day. People like to hear
contrary views, especially on what the government does, and this was
one such. It would not be surprising if the government used the
gathering to prove their case.

There is however no discussion on what the man-in-the-street is
worried of. He suddenly finds he has no recourse to the courts
because of his religion or some other matter. The judiciary, which is
his arbiter when he has a problem, now deserts him. The narrow
interpretation it gives is mixed up with his religion, and usually
denies the relief the non-Muslim asks for. The critical voices have
developed now because enough citizens deny the National Front has a
right to continued rule. The National Front and its government do not
explain, and announces its decisions, as if from Mount Olympus. That
is now questioned – by UMNO members and non-Muslim and non-Malay
members of the National Front.

Even Islam says there should be discussion before a decision is
reached, especially if it affects non-Muslims. So first the
government should welcome criticism of its plans, even of making
Malaysia an Islamic state, and adopt some of it into its laws. But
that would be difficult for a start because it has acted, certainly
for more than 35 years, as if its electoral victories gave it the
right not to discuss with others what they had planned. This has
resulted in passing laws that were soon amended because of the
opposition. The Islamic Family Laws Bill is one such. The Muslim
women protested. The bill is held in escrow. Plans are afoot to amend
it, but the minister in charge, a woman, thought it fit to discuss
with the Islamic authorities first before amending it. The question
of asking the women is out in the present system.

UMNO has tied itself in knots over Islam. It is pushed by UMNO as a
counterweight to the non-Malays, who denied their place in the
government and uniformed services, make hay in the private sector.
Some of whom get what they want by being close to the prime minister.
Since all Malays in Malaysia are by constitutional definition Muslim,
this march into an Islamic state would keep out the non-Malays. When
it makes laws affecting only Muslims, it finds opposition from the
Malays. Out of the blue, Malaysians are told that Islamic Hadhari, an
ill-thought politicial version of Islam accepted only in Malaysia,
takes precedence over Islam, which Prophet Mohamed had founded in the
7th century. There is a move in Malaysia to judge Islam by its
punishments not on what it stands for. There is no attempt to explain
Islam, and this is also PAS's fault, to the non-Muslim, whose doubts
are ignored because he is not a Muslim.

Islam is seen narrowly by the courts, by Malay judges, who
unfortunately confuse precepts in Islam as orders, and their judgment
is often not by logic but by their subconscious memory of Islam. This
is why there is no avenue for the non-Muslim in seeking justice over
a spouse, usually a husband, who has become a Muslim. She cannot go
to the civil courts, nor to the sharia courts, which will not
entertain her because she is not a Muslim. The confusion has come
about because Islam has been introduced into the mainstream
unthinkingly. Islam is more than what UMNO or PAS say it is. But
UMNO, as head of the National Front, takes a narrow interpretation so
that it can better PAS politically, and that spreads to the federal
government, and those states it controls. It is confusion today
because the non-Malays in the National Front agreed with UMNO on
this. This has come to confusion today.

The public forum yesterday brought out. But the speakers are not in
the mainstream of UMNO politics, and those present were mostly non-
Muslims. That represented the divide over Islam, even if most of the
speakers were Muslim and Malay. If the government continues to keep
mum over explaining its policies to the general public, then these
views would dominate. The people get their information from other
than government sources, and are angry. Continuing to keep quiet and
sitting on its high horse will not work, even if Islam is discussed.
The importance of this forum is that more Malaysians are interested.
But is this debate taking place elsewhere in the country? Perhaps.
But unless that also happens independently of Kuala Lumpur, the
National Front is safe, and not only on Islam but the government as
well.

M.G.G. Pillai