Last of Three Parts: Opportunities for Sultans as Head of Islam

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Sep 10, 2012

The sultans have shirked their responsibilities because one, they are ill equipped to play this important role as head of the faith. They have severely limited knowledge of Islam and worse, they lack the curiosity to learn. They are Islamically-challenged in all spheres.

M. Bakri Musa

[In the first part of this essay I explored the myth to the sultans’ claim of their special powers based on daulat (divine dispensation); in the second, I examined the dynamics that led them to claim that status today. In this third and last essay, I reviewed Zaid’s novel views of how the sultans could indeed claim their “special powers” by virtue of the fact of their being head of Islam.]

The constitution explicitly states the secular role of sultans. There are no penumbras or derived powers. In practice however, as Zaid noted with everything pertaining to the law, if you have money you could always hire a smarter lawyer who would argue otherwise. Indeed that is what the sultans are doing as they now can afford expensive legal counsel; hence their claim of “something extra” based on daulat.

Legal theories do not arise out of nowhere. It is the current weak political leadership of Najib (and Abdullah Badawi before him) that emboldens the sultans to reassert themselves and challenge established principles and practices.

That notwithstanding, there is one area in the constitution that is indisputable and unchallengeable: The sultan as head of Islam. This is where the sultan could rightly claim his special status as his authority there is absolute. Creatively managed, it could prove to be a splendid opportunity for them to serve not only Malays but also non-Muslim Malaysians.

“Where Islam is concerned,” Zaid writes, “the Malay Rulers have a golden opportunity to make their mark.” That they do not is the greatest missed opportunity, for them as well as for Malaysians and Malaysia.

This special role in Islam for the sultan has a strong foundation. The concept of a supreme head of the ummah goes back to the days of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs and indeed Prophet Muhammad, s.a.w., himself. Not surprisingly, modern Muslim leaders including our sultans have conveniently latched on to that symbolism.

Historically and for very practical reasons, the British were only too happy to relegate matters of Islam to the sultans. That was also politically shrewd as it placated both the natives and their sultans. Conveniently, Islam was also then peripheral if not irrelevant to the politics and economics of the country. So that was an easy concession on the part of the colonials. Further, with Malays consumed with their sultans and religion, that eased the British to exploit the economic riches of the land with the help of immigrants who were unencumbered with either.

Today the situation is very different. Malays are still obsessed with their religion and to some extent (although decidedly less so) their sultans. Islam today however, is central to everything that is Malaysian, especially politics and economics. The increasingly shrill contestation of Islam between UMNO and PAS attests to this. Islamic financial institutions are now major players, and zakat collections are in the billions.

At one level, Malays’ continuing obsession with religion and the afterlife distracts us from making our rightful contribution to the country, especially in matters economic. At another, this presents lucrative opportunities for the sultans to intrude into Islamic financial and economic spheres all in the guise of their being head and defender of the faith.

With his legal background, Zaid rightly focuses on the increasingly assertive role of syaria in the administration of justice. In the past, syaria was concerned primarily with family law, as with divorce and inheritance cases. Now it encroaches into areas hitherto the purview of secular (both civil as well as criminal) courts. Syaria is now on par with and in many instances superior to secular courts, in effect above the constitution. Fatwas (decrees issued by religious functionaries) now have the power of law, thus usurping the legislature.

If those were not problematic enough, with syaria usurping the criminal courts Malaysians face the reality that the punishment they get would depend not on the crime they have committed rather their faith. A Muslim caught committing adultery could face “stoning to death” under syaria while non-Muslims would not even be prosecuted, or if prosecuted would be slapped with a small fine for indecent exposure perhaps and suffer the wrath of their spouses. Even in matters pertaining to family law, they can get messier especially where one party to the dispute is a non-Muslim. The victims are not just the living. Recent cases of “corpse snatching” are but one ugly manifestation.

This judicial abdication by the secular courts, in Zaid’s view, occurred because their judges are mostly Malays who want to appear “pious and upright Muslims… want[ing] to fit into the ‘correct’ image of a good Muslim.”

Islam emancipated the ancient Bedouins and made them give up their odious practices such as female infanticide and “an eye for eye” sense of justice. Perversely today, the more Malays and Malaysia become “Islamized,” the more backward, corrupt, polarized and dysfunctional Malays and Malaysia become. The irony!

“Islam – the great purifier and liberating force in the world – had been reduced to an ordinary cult in Malaysia,” writes Zaid. Not any ordinary cult but a rogue one, with corrupt, toxic leaders.

As undisputed leaders of Islam, sultans have a major role to correct these obvious pathologies. That they have abdicated this crucial role is a major factor to Malays becoming deeply polarized and increasingly marginalized economically. That is a tragedy not only for Malays but also for all Malaysians. Ultimately this will also negatively impact the sultans.