[754] Of the strengthening role of religion within the government
The past few years have seen the strengthening of role of religion, specifically Islam, within the Malaysian government. Not too many months ago, we saw how certain religious authority had the audacity to form moral police squads despite public disapproval. It took several hard no's to convince that religious authority to abandon that idea. More recently, policewomen had been ordered to wear headscarf at an official function regardless of belief. The police stated that it was for the sake of uniformity but I suspect something more sinister going on. Though this enactment is only effective at state level, it may well be another step taken to further erode secularism in Malaysia.
This trend is definitely the effect of intense UMNO-PAS rivalry that started in 1999. PAS managed a stunning win in the year's general election. In effort to counter PAS, UMNO tried to be more Islamic than PAS, enticing conservatives that would normally vote for PAS. It worked and in the 2004 general election, UMNO gave PAS a severe beating.
The "I'm more a Muslim than you" policy may have accomplished what UMNO desired but they're disfranchising the more moderate Malaysians. For such reason, I hope to see UMNO's current policy to backfire in 2008 or 2009, the year the next general election is due. Such backlash would halt UMNO and indirectly, the government's march to the right. PAS suffered somewhat similar backlash during the Pengkalan Pasir by-election, or not.
Else, soon, through extrapolation, maybe, the government would send Muslims to jail for missing prayers in the future. Hey, they've already sent those that don't fast during Ramadan into a "timeout". That could happen unless we stop giving those in the right more power to impose their self-proclaimed superior moral and other religious rules on the masses.
The problem is, of course, we have a commie wannabe as an alternative to UMNO and PAS and that makes things tougher than it ought to be. In the end, it's all about the lesser devil, unfortunately. And that lesser devil is currently somewhere on the left.
What the hell? This is stupid. Religion is the business of an individual and God, not the state and God. Fundamentalists love to babble on about akhirat, so why waste your time enforcing your beliefs on others when they will only go through the rituals insincerely? Leave them be. Talk to them, encourage them to change their ways, yes, but don't force them to do something they don't want. That is tantamount to lying to God -- to making him believe that someone is actually fulfilling his requirements. Going through the motions is not a true religion if you don't have faith in those motions. And if the person is incorrigible, then leave him alone. After all, in a few decades he'll be burning in hell, right? here's no need to waste public funds enforcing a faith the "believer" doesn't have faith in. (This applies to all anti-secularists, not just the Muslim ones.)
By johnleemk, at 25 March, 2006 13:42
PKR's so hopeless that you didn't take it into consideration? :P
By sigma, at 27 March, 2006 03:26
Oh, it's not totally that. I see PKR as PAS' satellite party. So, Keadilan is part of the problem as far as this right-left equilibrium is concerned.
By __earth, at 27 March, 2006 07:19
Is there any hope of a multi-ethnic centre-left party in Malaysian politics?
By John Hardy, at 27 March, 2006 22:10
Apparently not.
DAP = Going extinct soon. Derided for being a social democrat
PKR = On life-support atm. Derided for pandering to the Right (although there are a sizeable opposing 'Left' block though, headed by Dr Syed Husin and co., and the non-Muslims in it)
Gerakan = Minor minor BN component party. Probably small 'l' liberal, and on the Left, but not a social democratic party for a change. Derided for selling out to BN.
PRK = Ex-Malay-lead Left party. Harder socialist line than DAP. Almost no popular support from all ethnicities. Dead. Incorporated into PKR.
Parti Negara = Closest thing Malaysia have had for a liberal Left party. Dead on birth, due to lack of support for a multi-ethnic ideology for Malaysia in the 50/60's.
I think the way forward in Malaysia's Centre-Left political spectrum is to (sob sob) dump the social democratic parties, and try small 'l' liberal ones instead. Call them 'progressive' parties. Whatever. Should be interesting to see whether that has the ability to draw the vital mass Malay support for it, which both social democrats DAP and PKR has failed to do. This the Lib-Dems in the UK. PKR has a slight resemblance to this blueprint, but its Centre-Left faction seems precariously week against its Islamic Right faction.
By sigma, at 27 March, 2006 22:39
Thankyou sigma that helped me a lot. Something that I've never understood was why the DAP or some coalition parties couldn't make a decent job of playing the role like a Labour party or like the American Democrats. Ethnicity still seems to me to be the most potent political force in the country so I suppose it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that religious power is also increasing.
By John Hardy, at 30 March, 2006 09:44
