When Giant Ulema Collide, Victims are Muslims

Malay politics is seldom, if ever, about anything more than race or religion. As if that isn’t bad enough, these days even those who are meant to be the racialists (read:UMNO) and those meant to be the religionists (read:PAS) hope to encroach upon the other’s territories. The ‘market’ after all constitute the very same people, the Malay-Muslims.

By Farouk A. Peru

First we had the PAS General Assembly a few weeks ago. At the end of this assembly, PAS President Hadi announced ‘unity talks’ with UMNO. The re-elected Vice President, Nasharuddin Mat Isa joined him but PAS spiritual leader, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, refused to join in. Admirably, he stood firm on the principle that PAS was an Islamic party and should brook no tolerance with UMNO’s racialist ideals. When the split became more acute, PAS supremos came to the forefront, claiming that unity talks were actually about Malaysian Unity, not Malay unity. Next, they will be trying to sell us the London Bridge. 

Now, we have the Perak Mufti, infamous for nearly stirring up a riot a few years ago, claiming that PAS is the cause of the Malay political disunity we witness at present. This statement smacks of political bias on the part of Harussani. After all, Harussani is a Muslim and as such, should not see Malay unity as even a goal, much less consider PAS the cause of its absence. I wonder why he would make such a statement. Perhaps it’s only in Malaysia that actual muftis talk about race.  

Then we have Nik Aziz who responded that by levelling such an accusation, Harussani is being ignorant of Islamic political history. Nik claims that saying PAS is the cause of Malay disunity is the equivalent of saying the Prophet is the cause of Arab disunity. Good comparison except for one thing: the companions of the Prophet never suggested sitting down with the Arab enemies of the Prophet for ‘Arab unity’ talks! PAS however, cannot be given such a clean bill of innocence. It wasn’t a PAS ‘prebet lapok’ who answered UMNO’s call for ‘Malay Unity’. It wasn’t even a PAS AJK, it was the President and Vice-President himself! Not only that, Nik himself told the Vice-President to please join UMNO himself if he was that interested in Malay unity. These are not minor problems, folks. These are major cracks in the PAS superstructure.  

The collision of Harussani and Nik Aziz, both giant ulema in the Malay Muslim world, shows that Islamic authority, far from being unified, has its own internal politics to deal with. The victims in all these political machinations are the Muslims themselves. Rather than the Muslims working with their fellow human beings for social betterment, something called for by the Quran itself, Muslims are busy choosing sides. Are they Malay first, then Muslim or vice-versa? Maybe it's the same thing since UMNO now talks like PAS and PAS like UMNO?  

The thing is though is that we Malays don’t need to be victims. What we need to do is to go beyond politics and understand the benevolent side of Malay culture – Malays are after all known for our legendary hospitality and sensitivity. This UMNO fascist politics is the antithesis of Malayness, ironic considering UMNO is standing up for Malay rights. Likewise, Islam doesn’t require the Machiavellian politics of PAS either. Standing with PKR and DAP one second and contemplating standing with UMNO the next. Not at all is Islam is like this. On the contrary, Islam requires intellectual investigation and the understanding between human beings. Moreover, when the Quran calls for social service, never does it segment human beings by religion.  

Malays need to move beyond these politics and focus on social betterment. That is the real struggle which benefit us all.