The clash between liberty and morality in Malaysia
Of late, the clash between morality and liberty in Malaysia has intensified. Morality has always reigned supreme ever since the rapid Islamisation of Malaysia. However, the bastion of morality is facing a sustained assault by the forces of liberty.
Aerie Rahman, TMI
The train of modernisation is accelerating at breakneck speed, without an end point. Concomitants to modernisation such as urbanisation, individualisation, liberalisation and secularisation transform the world as we know it. A consequence to these “-isations” is a rupture to much cherished traditional social arrangements.
Every society is touched by modernisation. Resistance is a natural reaction. But what makes a society genuinely progressive is not modernisation per se. Its how they choose to deal with the side effects of modernisation is what makes the progress sustainable.
Of late, the clash between morality and liberty in Malaysia has intensified. Morality has always reigned supreme ever since the rapid Islamisation of Malaysia. However, the bastion of morality is facing a sustained assault by the forces of liberty.
Female Malay Muslims are forbidden to enter beauty pageants while their Muslim counterparts in Indonesia are allowed to do so. The Shiite sect is proscribed. The tentacles of moral policing are far reaching.
Khalwat raids are pervasive, victimising Malay Muslims. Malay Muslims are forbidden to consume alcohol. Malay Muslims are punished if they gamble. Fasting in the month of Ramadan is compulsory for Malay Muslims.
The religious authorities mete out punitive measures – with state backing – to victimless crimes. Hardly any third party is directly harmed as a result of these so called “immoral activities” – yet they are punished for their different standards of morality. These punishments would surprise anyone from any liberal democracy, infused with enlightenment values.
The screws of repression are being tightened by the self-appointed custodians of morality.
Why do these conflicts happen? Why do religious moralisers seek to impose their will upon another human being? Shouldn’t people deserve to do whatever they want as long as they don’t harm others?
The evolution of morality
The cultural and moral strains that Malay Muslims are facing do not happen without a cause. Structural forces determine how we behave. Our circumstances and social situations are major influences that condition our behaviour. We act and react in response to the surroundings and environment we are in. Cultures around the world are different because they encounter different social problems and solve them in numerous ways.
The rapid modernisation that Malaysia is facing is changing the moral and social landscape that we are in. As Karl Marx pointed out, the base (economy) determines the superstructure (laws, behaviour, religion etc). Economic development in Malaysia empowers the individual. Malay Muslims interact and are able to relate with ideas that celebrate liberty, egalitarianism, rationality, relativism, utilitarianism and the right to be left alone.
These ideas might originate from the West, but it doesn’t mean that they are exclusively applicable to the West. An idea’s origins will have universal application if it passes the litmus test of rationality. After all, aren’t the origins of Islamic values, which are deemed universal, from the deserts of the Middle East?
Most Malay Muslims go through a partial transvaluation of values. For most, Islam is still their religion. But they go through re-interpretations and process of rationalisations of Islam, accepting some beliefs but suspending beliefs in some. Call it cognitive dissonance, if you want.
We are all aware of that Malay Muslim friend who “drinks and parties but would never consume pork while prays 5 times a day.” Or the Malay Muslim who will commit all sins in the present but will repent after marriage or hajj, sometime in the future.
In short, the changing social milieu is changing the habits and behaviours of Malay Muslims – especially among the urban, Western educated, English speaking and bourgeois.
For every action, there is always an equal and opposite reaction
Malay Muslims who are embedded in traditional beliefs react differently to the changing social landscape. They feel that the traditional social arrangements are collapsing in front of them. Public morality is being upended by liberty. Thus they appoint themselves as sanctimonious moral guardians – in charge of preserving the sanctity of morality.
