Political Islam in Malaysia: Problematising discourse and practice in the UMNO-PAS 'Islamisation race'

Commonwealth and Comparative Politics

Volumn 42, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 184-205

  Liow, Joseph Chinyong ^a  

^a NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ETHNOPOLITICS; ISLAMISM; POLITICAL DISCOURSE;

ASIA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; MALAYSIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA; WORLD;

EID: 8744285351     PISSN: 14662043     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/1466204042000299254     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. See K.J. Jomo and Ahmad Shabery Cheek, 'Malaysia's Islamic Movements', in J. Kahn and F. Loh (eds.), Fragmented Vision: Culture and Politics in Contemporary Malaysia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992), pp.79-106 for a study of major Islamic movements in Malaysia that have emerged from the Islamic resurgence of the 1970s.
2. As a sample of this scholarship, see J. Nagata, The Reflowering of Malaysian Islam: Modern Religious Radicals and their Roots (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984);
3. Chandra Muzaffar, Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia (Petaling Jaya: Penerbit Fajar Bakti, 1987);
4. K.S. Jomo and Ahmad Shabery Cheek, 'The Politics of Malaysia's Islamic Resurgence', Third World Quarterly, 10/2 (1988 , 843-68;
5. Hussin Mutalib, Islam in Malaysia: From Revivalism to Islamic State (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1993).
6. Mohamad Abu Bakar, 'External Influences on Contemporary Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia', Contemporary Southeast Asia, 13/2 (September 1991), 220-28.
7. For a study of PAS's history and political ideology, see Alias Mohamed, PAS' Platform: Development and Change, 1951-1986 (Petaling Jaya: Gateway Publishing House, 1994).
8. Previous presidents such as Burhanuddin Al-Helmy and Mohd Asri Muda were known more as Malay nationalists than Islamists. See Safie Ibrahim, The Islamic Party of Malaysia: Its Formative Stages and Ideology (Kelantan: Nawawi bin Ismail, 1981).
9. Asri Muda was replaced as party president by Yusof Rawa, the first ulama to head PAS.
10. This has been argued in several places such as Nagata, The Reflowering of Malaysian Islam
11. Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, 'New Trends of Islamic Resurgence in Contemporary Malaysia: Sufi-Revivalism, Messianism, and Economic Activism', Studia Islamika, 6/3 (1999), 5-73.
12. Mohamad Abu Bakar, 'Islamic Revivalism and the Political Process in Malaysia', Asian Survey, 21/10 (October 1981), 1040-59.
13. Kelantan has long been the traditional stronghold of PAS.
14. In 1996, relations between PAS and Semangat '46 were broken over disagreements as to the power of the sultans. Later in 2001, an alliance with the Chinese-dominated DAP (Democratic Action Party) was similarly broken over PAS's relentless pursuit of the Islamic state.
15. See Muzaffar, Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia.
16. See for example 'UMNO korbankan Islam', Harakah (Kuala Lumpur), 7 June 1999.
17. In Islamic theology, labelling a person 'kafir' or ungodly is a particularly serious accusation when made in reference to Muslims. The politicisation of 'kafir-mengafir' (accusations and counter accusations made by PAS and UMNO politicians regarding each other's religious credentials) has been explored in Kamarulnizam Abdullah, The Politics of Islam in Contemporary Malaysia (Bangi: Penerbit University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 2002), 192-6.
18. 'Political bickering stumbles Malaysia's model Islamic state', Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Hamburg), 24 October 2002.
19. For a critical discussion of reformist Islamic drought, see Muhammad Mumtaz Ali (ed.), Modern Islamic Movements: Models, Problems and Prospects (Kuala Lumpur: A.S. Noordeen, 2000).
20. See J. Nagata, 'How to be Islamic without being an Islamic State', in A. Ahmed and H. Donnan (eds.), Islam, Globalisation, and Postmodernity (London: Routledge, 1994), 71.
21. This case has been made by Greg Barton in 'The ties that do not bind', Asiaweek, 16 June 2000.
22. See Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, 'An Islamicist's View of an Islamic State and its Relevance to a Multi-Racial Society', in H. Crouch, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, Carmen Abubakar and Yang Razali Kassim, Islam in Southeast Asia: Analysing Recent Developments, Studies, Trends in Southeast Asia, No.1 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian, 2002).
23. There is currently an ongoing struggle between UMNO and PAS over the matter of hudud criminal law. While PAS has moved to enact such laws in Kelantan and Terengganu in accordance with Article 11 of the Malaysian constitution, which allows states the right to manage religious affairs, the powers of implementation lie with the UMNO-controlled federal government, which has steadfastly rejected calls from the opposition to implement the enacted criminal laws.
24. See for example 'Racial Politics versus PAS', Harakah (Kuala Lumpur), 30 November 1998.
25. 'PAS will not force Islam on Malaysia if it runs government', Straits Times (Singapore), 1 January 2003.
26. 'PAS Quietly Shifts Election Tactics', Straits Times (Singapore), 14 January 2003.
27. 'Hadi: Role for All Communities in Islamic State', www.malaysiakini.com, 27 August 2002.
28. J. Hilley, Malaysia: Mahathitism, Hegemony and the New Opposition (London: Zed Books, 2001), 193-9.
29. See P. Martinez, 'A Response to Dr. Tom Michel', CTC Bulletin (Bulletin of the Program Area on Faith, Mission, and Unity, Christian Conference of Asia), 18/1 (April 2002), daga.dhs.org/cca/resources/ctc/ctc02-01/ctc0201e.htm.
30. Ibid. To the author's knowledge, many non-Muslims as well as Muslims laud PAS's curbing of such activities as they are associated with the 'social ills' that even the federal government has acknowledged have become a problem in Malaysia.
31. It is noticeable that on its website, PAS maintains a column devoted to reports on the party in the Chinese media.
32. See 'Malaysia: Mahathir's Trojan Horse', www.islamonline.net, 17 April 2001.
33. In a groundbreaking study, the noted Malaysian ethnographer Tan Chee Beng has concluded that the Chinese communities in Terengganu have not felt their identities threatened by the presence of a PAS state government. See C.B. Tan, Chinese Minority in a Malay State: The Case of Terengganu in Malaysia (Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2002).
34. Farish Noor, 'Islam vs Secularism?: The New Political Terrain in Malaysia and Indonesia', Asia Today, 22 November 1999, 3. During earlier administrations, especially that of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Islam was very much confined to the realm of personal belief and worship, and its only political utility came when it was mobilised as a counter-weight to communism.
35. Taken from Mahathir's speech at the 33rd UMNO General Assembly, Hilton Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, 10 September 1982.
36. The role that Anwar played personally in countering PAS during his tenure with UMNO has been discussed in Abdullah, The Politics of Islam in Contemporary Malaysia, 183-9.
37. Noor, 'Islam vs Secularism?', 4.
38. These labels have been used regularly in the UMNO-controlled mainstream media to construct the boundaries of the UMNO versus PAS discursive debates. While the author is personally uncomfortable with such labelling, seeing that the labels themselves are pregnant with all sorts of meanings and implications that too often reflect misconceptions and ignorance of the complexities of Islam, these discursive debates must nevertheless be subjected to critical de-construction in order to understand their role in the definition of the terms and boundaries of the Islamic debate between UMNO and PAS.
39. Even ulama aligned or sympathetic to UMNO have by and large refrained from taking PAS religious leaders head-on in debates over ideology and dogma.
40. See 'PAS minta biar UMNO dan PAS selesaikan soal Islam', Harakah (Kuala Lumpur), 5 December 2002.
41. Mahathir himself is not a religious scholar, and has not been particularly prolific in terms of his writings on Islam. He makes several references to Islam in The Malay Dilemma, and attempts to illuminate, via numerous quotes from the Koran, the Islamic basis for many of his policies in The Challenge.
42. See Mahathir Mohamad, The Malay Dilemma (Kuala Lumpur: Times Books International, 1970) and The Challenge (Kuala Lumpur: Pelanduk Publications, 1997).
43. For a critical study of Mahathir's personal philosophy of Islam, see B.T. Khoo, Paradoxes of Mahathirism (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1992), 163-86.
44. 'Mahathir: PAS Leader will Face Hell', Straits Times (Singapore), 19 June 2002. PAS has, of course, used equally damning language in their condemnation of UMNO. For example, during the 1999 general election campaign in rural communities, it was commonplace to find some PAS candidates suggesting that voting for PAS is a ticket to heaven while a vote for UMNO is a condemnation to hell.
45. See J. Liow, 'Crisis, Choice and Change: Malaysian Electoral Politics at the End of the 20th Century', Asian Journal of Political Science, 7/2 (December 1999), 48-9.
46. See 'PAS Hopes to Bank on Mahathir Again for Votes', Straits Times (Singapore), 31 May 2002.
47. For an illuminating, albeit dated, study on the historical legacy of militarism in the concept of Jihad, see P. Crone, Slaves on Horses: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980).
48. See 'Politik Maklamat Menghalalkan Cara, PAS Belakangkan Agama', www.jihad-info.net, 16 January 2003. No doubt by portraying PAS as proponents of violence and radicalism through their dominance of the local media, UMNO has accrued much mileage in the international arena as an exemplary 'moderate' Muslim state. There is no doubt some truth in UMNO accusations. PAS acting president Abdul Hadi Awang, for example, is well-known for a call he made in the mid-1980s for PAS supporters to conduct a jihad against the 'un-Islamic' UMNO. Similar calls were made by Ibrahim Mahmood during the bloody stand-off against government forces at the infamous Memali Incident of 1985. Ibrahim Mahmood and his supporters were PAS members as well.
49. For a discussion of this aspect of UMNO politico-religious philosophy, see Ibrahim Ahmad, Konflik UMNO-PAS Dalam Isu Islamisasi (Petaling Jaya: IBS Buku Sdn. Bhd, 1989), 66-81.
50. See www.umno-online.com or www.jihad-info.net.
51. Maznah Mohamad, 'PAS vs UMNO', Aliran, 4 (2001), 7.
52. This political strategy has been evident since 1980, when the Malaysian government sought to link PAS with a clandestine militant group that was responsible for desecrating Hindu temples and attacking police stations. See 'The Chosen Ones Who Ran Amok', Far Eastern Economic Review, 24 October 1980. Another example was the Memali Incident of November 1985, where 14 PAS members who had taken up arms against the government were killed. While the government portrayed the 14 killed as extremists, PAS eulogised them as martyrs.
53. 'Terror investigations strain Malaysian politics', BBC News (London), 22 January 2002.
54. 'Nik Aziz's Son Named in Report', The Star (Kuala Lumpur), 2 January 2003.
55. See 'Indonesia Backgrounder: How the Jemaah Islamiyah Terrorist Network Operates', International Crisis Group Report (Jakarta), 11 December 2002.
56. See 'Malaysian Row over T.V. Propaganda', BBC News (London), 15 January 2002.
57. It is interesting to note however, that while the Malaysian government has made much of the fact that PAS members were linked to international militant Islamic groups, the fact that at least two Malaysian Armed Forces officers were implicated for their role in supporting the activities of the al Qaeda terrorist network has gone relatively unnoticed.
58. 'PAS Sticks to Champion of Islam Role', Straits Times (Singapore), 8 June 2002.
59. See 'Getting Radical', Time, 10 September 2001.
60. See 'Jihad in a Teacup', www.malaysiakini.com, 9 September 2001.
61. Most recently, this has included an attempt to associate acting PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang with Indonesian terrorists. See 'PAS wants Hadi's Case in Court once Probe is Over', www.malaysiakini.com, 9 February 2003.
62. See for example, 'Weakening of Opposition Politics in Malaysia', Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur), 27 November 2001;
63. 'PAS' Wrong Foot Forward', Straits Times (Singapore), 17 July 2002.
64. Even non-Muslim Malaysians have spoken out against American policies towards Muslim states.
65. It should be noted that soon after the party's initial response, PAS quickly moved to condemn the terrorist attacks. See ' Interviu Wartawan AFP dengan Tuan Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat melatih rakyat takutkan Tuhan', Detik Daily, www.detik.daily.tripod.com, 17 September 2001. Not surprisingly, this went unreported in the mainstream news media.
66. Farish Noor, 'Globalisation, Resistance and the Discursive Politics of Terror, Post-September 11', in K. Ramakrishna and A. Tan (eds.), The New Terrorism: Anatomy, Trends, and Counter-Strategies (Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2002), 170.
67. A.B. Shamsul, 'Malaysia's International Role Post-September 11', IDSS Commentaries (November 2002).
68. The Malay rulers or sultans in Malaysia are empowered by the constitution to rule over matters of religion. Hence, the deletion of the world 'Islam' from the official name of PAS requires the approval of the Council of Rules. This has not been forthcoming.
69. See 'The Mousedeer, The "Taliban", and a Sorry State', Aliran, 7 (2002), www.malaysia.net/aliran/monthly/2002/76.html
70. In particular for Malaysia, the irony that Washington lauded Malaysian support for the war on terrorism while listing Malaysia as a 'terrorist-risk' state will not be lost.
71. The UMNO-PAS discursive debate has been the subject of numerous studies and commentaries by accomplished scholars and columnists such as, among others, Farish Noor, Patricia Martinez, Maznah Mohamed and A.B. Shamsul.
72. For a study on the details of the relationship between the two complementary legal systems in Malaysia, see M.G. Peletz, Islamic Modern: Religious Courts and Cultural Politics in Malaysia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002).
73. The bill was only withdrawn after protests by non-Muslim communities.
74. 'When State-sponsored firebrands are just as confusing to Muslims', New Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur), 19 September 2002.
75. 'How Far should Islamic Law Go?', Sunday Times (Singapore), 21 August 1997. Under pressure from non-Muslims, the government later rescinded the original bill and replaced it with one that called for the study of 'Asian Civilisations'.
76. This is in accordance with the federal constitution, article II(4), which permits legislation to be passed to 'control and restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among the persons professing the religion of Islam'.
77. H. Crouch, Government and Society in Malaysia (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1996), 168-9.
78. Further examples of the encroachment of bureaucratised Islam in Malaysian society have been given in P. Martinez, 'The Islamic State or the State of Islam in Malaysia', Contemporary Southeast Asia, 23/3 (December 2001), 474-503.
79. 'How Far should Islamic Law Go?', Straits Times (Singapore), 22 August 1997.
80. 'Stuck in an Islamic Time Capsule', www.muslimedia.com/archives/sea98/capsule.htm, 1-15 August 1997. The report also noted that the women 'had admitted that it (their arrest) was a blessing in disguise and they now realised the meaning of dignity in Islam'.
81. This has included local policies that, among other things, prohibit non-halal foods in certain school canteens, bans on signboards associated with alcohol in certain states, denial of permits to celebrate Chinese cultural festivals in some schools.
82. See Karim Raslan, 'For Malaysia's Sake, Reclaim the Debate on Islam from PAS', Business Times (Singapore), 15 July 2002. In fact, in 1993 two UMNO representatives in the Kelantan state assembly voted in support of PAS's tightening of the skeletal syariah criminal law previously enacted by UMNO when the party was in power in the state.
83. This observation was made by DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang in 'UMNO-PAS Islamic Competition more Far-reaching Consequences than 2003 Budget', www.dapmalaysia.org/english/lks/sep02/lks1866.htm.
84. See T. Netto, 'Islamic State Discourse: Chops and Turns', Aliran, 2 (2002), www.malaysia. net/aliran/monthly/2002/2d.html
85. It was a watershed in the sense that it marked the first instance where a Malaysian political leader declared publicly that Malaysia was already in 'Islamic state'.
86. See 'PM Defends "Islamic State" Declaration', www.malaysiakini.com 17 September 2002.
87. The doctrines of these fundamentalist ideologues in essence carried on from the work of Muhammad Abduh and more so his disciple Rashid Rida, whom many consider the founding theoretician of the Islamic state in its modern permutation. See Hamid Enayat, Modern Islamic Political Thought (London and Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1982), 104-60.
88. For a study of their ideologies, see J. Esposito, Islam and Politics (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1984), 131-51.
89. Strictly speaking, from the example of Medina, the dhimma model permitted 'People of the Book', namely Jews and Christians, to co-exist as dhimmi (protected persons) alongside the majority Muslim community. This however, entailed a status of subordination. See B. Ye'or, Islam and Dhimmitude, trans. D. Littman (Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001). The strict application of this model in Malaysia however, would be problematic given the fact that non-Muslims include Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists and Animists, who would not be considered 'People of the Book'.
90. See Mahathir Mohamad, address delivered at Majlis Perasmian Persidangan Perwakilan ke-30 Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, 29 September 2001. Public responses were featured in 'Public Response to the 'Islamic State' Poser', Aliran, September 2001. It was noticeable however, that UMNO's non-Muslim allies remained conspicuously silent in response to what appeared to be a significant announcement.
91. These concerns were more a product of ignorance on the part of Western governments and leaders over the various shades of Islamic politics and general, if ungrounded, concern for the concept of an Islamic State than any real sense of transformation in Malaysia's political trajectory as a result of Mahathir's announcement.
92. A.B. Shamsul, 'Beyond 11 September: A Malaysian Response', Nordic Newsletter of Asian Studies, 4 (2001), 2.
93. See 'Negara Islam ala UMNO nafikan hak rakyat', Harakah (Kuala Lumpur), 2 October 2001.
94. See 'Malaysia: Abdullah Badawi - A Model Muslim?', Far Eastern Economic Review, 5 September 2002.
95. An example of his preparedness to take on PAS on Islamic matters was evident for all to see during the recently-concluded UMNO General Assembly, where in the course of his address as party Deputy President Abdullah Badawi, a respected Islamic scholar in his own right, threw down the gauntlet at the ideologues of PAS. 'Abdullah Bombshell', Straits Times (Singapore), 19 June 2003. Defining his battle lines against PAS, he asserted that UMNO will 'battle PAS in the schools, in the streets, everywhere ... Their approach to Islam is very obscure ... we have to make sure it does not spread'. See 'Pak Lah Vows to Fight Hardline Islamic Opposition', www.malaysiakini.com, 9 March 2003.
96. This view has been expressed by theorists of the Islamic state such as Rashid Rida and Taqi a]-Din al-Nabhani. For a comprehensive survey of theories of the Islamic state, see Suba Taji-Farouki, 'Islamic State Theories and Contemporary Realities' in Abdel Salam Sidahmed and Anoushiravan Ehteshami (eds.), Islamic Fundamentalism (Boulder: Westview Press, 1996).
97. In fact, PAS has already made this argument in response to an earlier comment by Mahathir that Malaysia was a model 'Islamic country'. See 'Malaysia Bukan Negara Islam', Harakah (Kuala Lumpur), 28 December 1999.
98. See for example 'Malaysia Negara Sekular', Utusan Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), 10 February 1983.
99. 'Mahathir: Malaysia will not become an Islamic state', www.asiafeatures.com, 30 April 2001.
100. This literature includes B. Lawrence, Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 19980;
101. V. Langohr, 'Of Islamists and Ballot Boxes: Rethinking the Relationship between Islamisms and Electoral Politics', International Journal of Middle East Studies, 33 (November 2001), 591-610;
102. G. Fuller, The Future of Political Islam (New York: Palgrave, 2003).
103. 'PAS endorses vision for an Islamic Malaysia', Straits Times (Singapore), 3 June 2002.
104. The Islamic State document can be found on the party's official website at www.parti-pas.org.