Hudud: PAS won’t budge, says Chandra
According to political scientist Dr Chandra Muzaffar, the ‘government has not responded positively’ to setting up the all important inter-religious council.
(Free Malaysia Today) – The evolving hudud stance taken by PAS is simply a tactical and political move to gain power and not really what leaders of the Islamic party really feel, veteran political scientist Chandra Muzaffar said yesterday.
“For tactical reasons, you have some PAS leaders that say that ‘no, no, we have changed now’. That is how the game is played. It is party politics.
“That’s what I learned in two and a half years in politics. The greatest goal is to coming to power at all costs,” said the 1Malaysia Foundation Board of Trustees chairman.
“You will find so-called Islamic parties in other parts of the world, they would take certain positions, increasingly in order to come to power, they shift their positions on certain issues as a way of garnering support.
“This is what we are witnessing in our country as well,” said Chandra, who was speaking at the “Religion and Unity in a Multi-ethnic Society” forum organised by MCA think thank Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research.
“Umno has never proposed the implementation of hudud. But PAS has, as we know. As soon as PAS came to power in Kelantan, they started the hudud bill and in 1999 in Terengganu, too. As far as PAS is concerned, it is committed to hudud. Umno is not committed as far as their responses are concerned,” said Chandra.
Chandra said that there are those who talk about how hudud won’t be able to be implemented and say that the entire issue is not important.
“But let me suggest to you, it is important. Not just for the non-Muslims, the impact on the Muslims too would be very very important.
“In the medium term and long run, Muslims would be most severely affected by what I describe as the hudud psychology.
“An attachment to hudud is an attachment to dogma, a certain interpretation on Islam. That’s what it is. An interpretation that privileges a certain understanding of Islamic law,” he said.
Strained ethnic, religious ties
Meanwhile, Chandra said that Malaysia is undoubtedly one of the few multi-religious societies in the world which has witnessed long period of minimal religious violence.
“It is remarkable and an achievement, and is due to the constitution, the leadership and the people,” he said.
Chandra said that the Federal Constitution and the recognition of the Malays position had contributed to the the relative stability. However, he said ties between ethnic and religious groups have strained in the past three decades.
“What is the reason for this? One of the most important factors is that from the 70s onwards, we have witnessed a rapid, dramatic transformation of Malay society. As a result of urbanisation, Muslims began to share the same cultural and religious space as the non-Muslims.”
Chandra said this “shared space” gave rise to “heightened religious consciousness”.
“A Malay in a rural setting had no reason to be conscious of his identity. But once a Malay goes into an urban setting, he becomes very conscious of his religious identity, from what he eats, what he attires and so on,” he said.
Chandra said one example was how Muslims wore the tudung now.
“The most vivid example of this, Muslim women, decided to don the hijab. There was no actual instruction from above. In fact, many spouses of our nations leaders in 70s, didn’t use the tudung. It is a way to express their identity,” he said.
Chandra said this increased religious consciousness led to challenges related to the situation of battles for deceased bodies, conversions, custodies of children and so on.
“What made it worse was the decline in ethnic relations,” he said.
