Minorities oppressed in bid to lure Malay votes, forum told

(MM) – Persecution of religious minorities here stemmed from the government’s bid to appeal to its traditional power base among Malay voters, said panellists of a forum on freedom of expression yesterday.

The forum also warned that freedom of religion will remain the biggest hurdle for civil liberties in Malaysia, with the issue becoming fodder for political parties of both sides of the aisle.

“The fear of those governing Malaysia, especially the Malay-Muslims, is that the loss of political power … They want a unified voice among Muslims,” said gender and human rights activist Angela Kuga Thas here.

“We keep hearing time and time again … we need authoritarian measures against people who are airing opinions which we disagree on,” added Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) director Sonia Randhawa.

“When you get a group being told to shut up … it just increases people’s hatred, it increases people’s anger, and it paves the way to a more divided society.”

Shiah adherent Hussain Sajad claimed that Putrajaya’s recent campaign against the denomination of Islam in the country is a way to divert the public’s attention from current issues such as the rising cost of living.

“This is one of the age-old tactics used by authorities to put the fear in people’s mind of foreign intervention or influences,” said Hussain, who represented religious minority activist group AsSajjad Movement.

Hussain also blamed “opportunist” independent ulama (religious cleric) who perpetuated the discrimination against the Shiahs, and the influence of the strict conservative Islamic school of Wahhabism.

Over the past year, Putrajaya, which endorses the Sunni school of Islamic jurisprudence, has stepped up its campaign against Shiah teachings and followers in Malaysia.

Shiah is Islam’s second-largest branch and practised by an estimated 15 per cent of the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, but is regarded as deviant by Malaysia, which strictly adheres to the Sunni school.

The forum yesterday was in conjunction with the launch of a report by CIJ that highlighted key moments in the build-up and the aftermath of the 13th general election.

The report, which was published in book form, noted that religion will continue to be a hotly-debated issue despite the passing of Election 2013.

“This is an important point to note, as the developments throughout the period shows, that religious differences will continue to be a sore point in Malaysia, which makes these issues easily manipulated for political gain,” said the report.

Locked in an apparent religious auction with rivals PAS, several Umno delegates had claimed the Malay nationalist party is “more Islamic” than the opposition Islamist party in its general assembly in December last year.

Since 2008, PAS has gradually shed its conservative religious image for a more moderate approach to broaden its appeal.

The shift has prompted Umno to try and fill the gap in an attempt to capture portions of the Malay heartland alienated by the Islamist party’s move.

Muslims make up 61.3 per cent of the Malaysian population, followed by Buddhists at 19.8 per cent, and Christians at 9.2 per cent, according to the latest census data from 2010.

Religion is considered key in appealing to the dominant community owing to the constitutional requirement for Malays to also be Muslims.

A five-year-old court dispute over whether the Arabic word for God, “Allah” is exclusive to Muslims as over 60 per cent of the religion’s followers here believe has also drawn deep divisions in Malaysia, with the country’s dominant Malay-Muslims on one side and its sizeable Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Hindus and Taoists on the other side.

University of Malaya’s Centre for Democracy and Elections (Umcedel) conducted last December that politicians’ use of religion was ineffective in generating support, and served only to create “more inter-ethnic tension” in the country.