A tale of four Malaysias competing for the future
Four competing ideologies which formed after Dr Mahathir Mohamad first took power are setting the course of Malaysian history.
Tajuddin Rasdi, FMT
This is my first attempt at describing what I believe to be the four competing ideologies that are determining Malaysia’s future. It can be said that these ideologies formed after Dr Mahathir Mohamad took the helm as prime minister.
His 22-year stint in power saw the rise of Mahathir’s Malay supremacy ideology, Anwar Ibrahim’s Islamic reformation ideology, the PAS theocratic state ideology and the DAP’s pragmatic developmental ideology.
Mahathir cultivated the Malay supremacy ideology of development. I think that, in reality, he did not care two cents about the politics of race supremacy or the idea of Malay hegemony.
His actions showed that he was about to destroy Umno without batting an eye. He never referred to any Malay heroes of the past, not even Onn Jaafar, the founder of Umno.
The Mahathir moment
For Mahathir, Malaysia’s development must be based on strong education, strong technology and science, strong work ethic and a strong pragmatic mind.
His Malayness only served his political aim of gaining power: without the Malays, he would have no power at all.
Mahathir believes that democracy must be led by an elite Malay group to ensure stability, and not dispersed by ethnic politics.
He cared not for culture, heritage or the arts, but was focused on the power of purchasing things, knowledge to understand the world and control over religion to keep people in place.
Many non-Malays supported this ideology as evidenced by them voting for Mahathir and Barisan Nasional in the two general elections after Anwar was humiliated and sent to prison.
The non-Malays preferred economic stability rather than show compassion over the humanity and fate of one person.
The Malays, meanwhile, supported Mahathir because he had strong leadership (though he cultivated corruption), consolidated power more than anyone else, and was able to stop the advancement of the non-Malays, which would have made Malaysia become like Singapore.
The DAP model
The DAP ideology simply advocates a strong institution that doesn’t distinguish between colour or faith, and which is a replica of the pure Western model of development. In that way, all religions including Islam are pacified so that no extremism would emerge using these concepts.
The Singaporean model of control over the press and free speech may also be part of the package, as it has been proven to have contributed to the economic and educational success of the republic.
The PAS model
On the other hand, PAS believes in a theocratic state where the constitution is based on their interpretation of the Quran and shariah law. A group of clerics or council of ulama will oversee the creation of any laws by elected representatives; it would probably not function like the Westminster system.
In the PAS model, non-Malays will be deemed second class citizens, similar to the concept of dhimmis. All cultures must be respectful of the Islamic laws, with no quarter given.
The Anwar model
Meanwhile, Anwar formulated a half-western democracy, half-Islamic model. I think he believes that the west has created an excellent culture of education, learning, development and administration that is just.
What the west lacks is the fear of God and good values of humanity that cut across cultures and faiths.
Anwar proposed an Islamic civilisational idea of development where the best of the west is phrased within a spiritual construct that sits above mere economics or power-driven ambitions.
Anwar wanted Parliament to be filled with good Malays who understand the best values of the Prophet and serve the people with the idea of worship as service, with God as the ultimate KPI keeper.
The DAP model never had a chance to be tested and will never be made a reality. The power play of racial politics in the 40 years since Mahathir took charge has buried that chance while the politics of religion has sealed the fate of our political progression.
Mahathir’s kill-switch
Mahathir’s legacy continues but the element of Islam has been added to the formula.
When he checkmated Anwar by throwing his former deputy in prison, he killed the steady progression of Islamic resurgence led by the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) and Pertubuhan Ikram Malaysia (Ikram), and to some extent the tabligh and arqam movement.
Gone were the nasyids and “Hal Ehwal Islam” programmes on TV and gone were the likes of Barul Hisham and Hassan Ali.
Anwar’s vision of progression was to imbue the Malays with the values of Islam, not just the rituals of the religion: the values of justice, kindness and compassion for all, and the love of critical thought and of acquiring knowledge in universities.
Mahathir’s kill switch stopped the progression of Islamic reform in society and stunted the growth of critical thinking and a spirituality that cuts across all faiths. Universities began to be silent and had new KPIs measured by useless production of research papers. Critical thought about Islam and modern life was put to a stop.
The rise of PAS
PAS then surged into prominence. In Anwar’s absence, Abim and Ikram had to work with PAS. Originally, the two NGOs did not agree with the party’s theocentric politics.
The Islamic reform movement was spearheaded by professionals while their enemies were the ustazes and the religious institutions, who had the traditional mandate of power but were bereft of original thinking and adaptation to modern life.
So PAS was given a fresh breath of political life with the entry of professionals from Abim and Ikram, and a second lease of political life through Najib Razak prior to the 2018 general election.
Third-generation reformists
The children of Abim and Ikram leaders grew up to be third-generation reformists with no understanding of the original idea of politics. They were exposed to just the physical forms of Islam cultivated by the two NGOs.
They too began to support PAS where once they would not because their parents supported Umno under Anwar.
PAS is now knocking on the door of power by playing the religion card, mixed with the Malay card, while working with Bersatu and being prepared to grant anything that Sarawak and Sabah politicians want just so it can sit in power.
PAS knows that Sabah and Sarawak do not care about West Malaysia’s fate, as long as they can rule their own two nations, even if it means working with “the devil they know”.
Rise of NEP graduates
Another unforeseen situation came to the fore when the first and second generation graduates of the New Economic Policy returned from overseas and went to work in government agencies and the private sector.
They made up a huge Malay middle and upper middle class. These people, who had not supported any form of Islamic reformation movement, began to retire with money in their bank accounts.
When Malays have money, the mind turns to religion, not so much towards travelling the world as the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans and westerners do. Religion is their salvation, and so these pensioners began to hire more and more ustazes and frequented more and more mosques for their ceramahs and even listened to YouTube teachers of religion.
Building towards PAS rule
The conservatively-trained ustaz were now in high demand, and formed a narrative capable of dividing Malaysia into people who are haram and people who are halal.
“Halal” people are those who hate alcohol, pray regularly and perform the umrah frequently. There was no notion of sharing this nation with such kafirs and unbelievers.
That tone was set through in-house teachings and mosque lectures. The institutionalised Friday sermons rejected any kind of progressive, reform-minded thinking about Islam and nation-building, instead preaching a conservative idea of religion totally separate from the Rukun Negara or any sense of spirituality that Anwar had envisioned.
All this will usher in a new era of PAS rule as early as the next general election.
Well, that is the gist of what I think happened. There is of course more that I can say but enough for now. My next article will try to answer these questions: What Now? and Where To, Malaysia?
