No one left to stand up for secular Malaysia
What is needed, of course, is a concerted effort to confront the political narrative of Islamists like Hadi, but that is unlikely to happen because few are willing to challenge them politically or theologically.
Recently, one respected commentator pleaded with non-Malays not to attack Hadi but to leave it to the Malay-Muslim intelligentsia to take him on. But Hadi has been ranting and raving and making the most outrageous statements against non-Malays and non-Muslims for years; with few exceptions, most Muslim scholars and academics have either kept silent or downplayed his remarks.
In fact, Malay-Muslim academics are the least likely to challenge Hadi and the Islamists. Many simply lack the intellectual capacity or credentials to take them on; others simply lack the courage. Most, I suspect, are quietly sympathetic. The few that endeavour to engage the Islamists in rational discussion find themselves quickly marginalised.
Our politicians are no better. Many, if not most, already subscribe to the general goals of political Islam. They all understand that the ground has shifted. There’s nothing to be gained politically by defending Malaysia’s secular multicultural identity. The fight amongst them now is not about whether Malaysia should be an Islamic state or not but about who ought to lead the emerging Islamic polity.
In any case, all too many of our politicians are thoroughly indolent, iniquitous, self-centred and corrupt. All they want is power, position and privilege; they have no commitment to the well-being of the nation. This collapse of leadership has created a political vacuum which Islamists are now rushing to fill.
Non-Malay political parties are fully aware of what is going on as well. They’ve had plenty of opportunities to seriously engage Malay-Muslim parties but they have consistently failed to defend the secular foundations of our nation. When Dr Mahathir triumphantly declared Malaysia an Islamic state at the Gerakan annual delegates conference in 2001 – barely days after the 9/11 attack – he did so with the acquiescence and support of Gerakan, MCA and MIC leaders.
At the time, only the DAP vigorously struggled to defend the secular foundations of Malaysia. But that was before the party tasted federal power. Since 2018 (when they became part of the federal government for the first time ever) they’ve backed away from many of the issues they once championed.
Twice in the last few months, for example, the issue of RUU355[1] – which many view as a major step forward in the evolution of an Islamic state – has been raised in parliament by the minister of religious affairs; the DAP has said nothing.
The DAP skilfully preys on non-Malay fears about the green wave and presents itself as a bulwark against it but like the MCA before them, they too have made their accommodation with political Islam.
Whatever it is, the duplicity of our politicians is nothing short of criminal. In exchange for temporary power, position and privilege, they are willing to compromise, even abandon, the fundamental and sacred principles that underpin Malaysia’s status as a secular multicultural constitutional democracy.
What hope can there be for Malaysia’s future as a secular nation when even non-Muslim political leaders are unwilling to fight for it? – Dennis Ignatius
Related report:
June 13, Why Hadi is the face of Malaysia’s future