Malaysia Matters Podcast

In a clear attempt to curry favor amongst the Indian electorate, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi orchestrated a pre-Deepavali festival release of ten Indian protesters that bad been arrested late last week while presenting a petition at Badawi’s office for the freedom of five activists that have been jailed since November of last year. Their group has been outlawed for about a month now.

As reported by the Economic Times:

Those held included K. Shanti, wife of Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy, who is in self-exile in London, and their six-year-old daughter Vwaishhnnavi. Shanti was released on police bail Thursday night and Vwaishhnnavi left with her, official news agency Bernama said. 

A police spokesman said all of them were freed to enable them to celebrate Deepavali. “Although the police, under the law, could extend their remand orders to facilitate investigations, yet on humanitarian ground they were released to enable them to celebrate the festive occasion,” the spokesman added. 
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Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar last week said in an interview that the action against the banned movement should not be construed as a clampdown on Indians orHinduism. The action taken so far, he said, was simply because of their association with militancy and their extremist views. 

Badawi spoke to a group on Sunday saying: “In the spirit of Diwali, that good will always prevail. Malaysians must remain together and not allow extremist groups and individuals to cause tensions to rise. “We are mature and united enough to recognise that the vast majority of Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, all aspire to achieve the same objectives for our families and for our country.”

Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) will hold an assembly this Friday to formally announce their backing of Anwar Ibrahim’s bid to return to parliament in elections coming at the end of this month. 

The PAS spiritual leader of the Islamic Party, PAS, Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat pledged last weekend to stand behind Anwar, choosing to overlook the unresolved criminal charges and crediting his faith in Anwar’s experience. 

PAS, one of the three parties in Anwar’s Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition has conservative elements that tend to push for greater closeness with the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) because of a shared Malay/Muslim interests. That said, being in on the ground floor with Anwar’s opposition coalition could reap greater benefits for PAS in the long run in the form of appointments to offices of influence.

This, of course, is good news for Anwar. Without PAS as a coalition partner, Anwar couldn’t hope to pull off his grand plan to take over the government next month. But although PAS is downplaying its strong Islamic viewpoint, it bears remembering that, should the scheme work, upon victory, Anwar will be heavily indebted to PAS, who most certainly will expect that favor to be returned.

At that point it will be very interesting to see what impact pro-Sharia law PAS officials have on already fragile minority rights in Malaysia. 

Soon after reports surfaced that a doctor determined there was no evidence to support claims by Saiful Bukhari Azlan of sodomy against Anwar, that very doctor disappeared. As this isn’t the first disappearance of late, the result will be likely be additional undesirable international attention given to Malaysia.

Doctor Mohamed Osman Abdul Hamid’s “diagnosis reportedly stated ‘TRO Assault (sodomise)’, or to rule out assault,” as reported by the Straits Times. He also reportedly advised that Saiful get a second opinion at a government hospital. Of course this feeds Anwar’s accusations that police are complicit in persecuting him for political reasons.

Malaysians are clearly becoming frustrated with the state to which politics there has sunk. Datuk Hamdan Adnan, director of the Institute of Public Relations, went so far as to say that “police should either drop the case against Anwar or charge the so-called victim if there was truth in the doctor’s report.”

After posting bond following Wednesday night’s stay in jail and arrest by “20 balaclava-clad police commandos,” the latest headline in opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s ongoing scandal is his refusal to give police a DNA sample. He also has refused to be photographed by the police. ”They have seen all my private parts. Of course I refused to be photographed, it could be on YouTube very soon!”

Anwar has said the allegations made by Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan, a 23-year-old former aide, are a government conspiracy to prevent him from seizing power after March elections where the opposition made major gains.

Anwar’s popularity as an underdog is running high in spite (or because) of being charged with sodomy for a second time. -Malaysia still has anti-sodomy laws on the books dating back to British colonial times that allow for caning and up to 20 years of jail time for acts of sodomy - even if both parties consent.

In the corresponding intrigue surrounding Anwar’s rival, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, we await the next revelation to peculate up regarding accusation of his involvement in the death and mutilation of Shaariibuugiin Altantuyaa. (Murder is a capitol offense in Malaysia) 

And then of course Mr Balasubramaniam Perumal, the private detective that originally accused Najib, is still missing, along with his family. 

There is plenty more dirt to be dug up and flung before the next rainy season hits and it all turns to mud. That much at least is certain.

But while the headlines capture our attention, the real story here is the stratification of Malaysian society that is providing the undercurrents of support both for, and against Anwar.

Battlelines are drawn along ethnic division and for all of Malaysia’s attributes and potential greatness, it seems to lack an effective republican check that would ensure a protection of individuals and minorities - whether those minorities be ethnic, economic, or religious.

And so Malaysia is at a crossroads. Andy Mukherjee on bloomberg.com goes so far as to say that:

Malaysia ought to serve as a statutory warning to fast- growing Asian nations about the pointlessness of chasing the dream of Western-style prosperity while failing to build strong democratic institutions. It’s wishful thinking that the latter would miraculously appear when a threshold level of per-capita income is crossed.

The bottom line?

Without a broad conviction in respect for individual freedom, the institutions to guarantee the same, and effective leadership to accomplish this, Malaysian democracy threatens to continue rubbing itself raw.

As problems continue to compound regarding food inflation and supply, one might think that a greater part of Malaysian reporting would revolve around such an issue. But scandal is the order of the day and seemingly the topic most often presented to Malaysia’s electorate.  

Amidst the announcement today from  Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi  that he would step down in 2010, accusations against his successor of conflict of interest, sex, and murder continue to dominate media coverage.  

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak and friends today refuted accusations of any involvement with the disappearance of the detective who had implicated him as allegedly having had a sexual relationship with a brutally murdered Mongolian woman. One of Najib’s top political aides is on trial for the murder, along with two state bodyguards. The detective and his family were reported to the police as missing this past Saturday.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has himself been accused of sodomy - (again.)  But Farish A. Noor has an interesting take on this; suggesting that Anwar might benefit as his support will be further fueled if there is a  perception that he is getting railroaded as they felt he did the last time he was accused of this.

Should the investigation on Anwar give any signs of bias this time round, many analysts expect the public’s dissatisfaction with the Barisan-led government to increase rather than decrease, thereby adding to Anwar’s popularity and appeal to the masses.

But in one other crucial respect, this latest development also carries a negative note to it in the sense that it has returned Malaysian society back to the older mode of personalised politics where the cult of leadership and political heroes are paramount. For decades Malaysian politics has been configured and defined by strong leaders whose dominant personalities ruled over the land and whose figures loomed large over the Malaysian landscape. The elections of March 2008 offered the faint promise that after decades of sectarian race-based politics, Malaysia’s political culture may have finally evolved beyond personality cults and hero-worship.

Now that Anwar is back in the limelight and grabbing the headlines for all the wrong reasons, it would appear as if the movement for change is once again forced to address the plight of a single leader – at a time when the country is facing the challenge of an economic slowdown and when international financial agencies like Morgan Stanley has indicated that some RM330 billion (US 90 Billion) has been dissipated from Malaysia through corruption. Malaysians seem to relish scandals and controversy to no end, but many Malaysians are also asking whether such scandals are a convenient way to distract the public’s attention from the harder real issues of daily governance and Malaysia’s economic survival in the future. For now, however, Anwar’s plight will ensure that the dominant theme of Malaysian politics will return to the narrative of heroes and martyrs, temporarily at least.

Crazy stuff. All that we need now is a blue dress thrown in the mix so that an American audience can relate to this madness as well.

If you wish to understand the governing philosophy of Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, you must familiarize yourself with Islam Hadhari. It’s a particular take on Islam and its role in public life that has especial traction in Malaysia, not least because the Prime Minister is a vigorous proponent of its role and possibilities. Americans used to our Constitutional order may not readily grasp the importance of a democratic leader’s theological propensities: as Jefferson said, “It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” But in Malaysia, and in an Islamic society, it might well do both. Most (though not all) strains of Islam claim an explicit role in the state and governance — as do some forms of Judaism, Theravada Buddhism, and to a vastly lesser extent, particular Christian denominations — and so it matters greatly what a leader’s view of religion in public life is.

Before Badawi’s ascent to power, in the 22 years of Mahathir Mohamad’s leadership, the role of Islam in governance was inextricably bound up with the promulgation of the Bumiputra system of ethnic-Malay preference in economic and policy affairs. (We’ll be writing much more on the Bumiputra system in time.) Though Mahathir himself became infamous for saying inflammatory things to Islamic audiences in the last decade of his tenure, within Malaysia itself, it cannot be said that he implemented Islamic rule per se. Rather, Islam was an adjunct to Bumiputra, as Islam plus ethnicity defined what a Bumiputra was.

Under PM Badawi, Islam’s role is shifting, and the endorsement of Islam Hadhari is intrinsically bound to this process. It’s best to let him define the term himself, as he did to a Western audience in his speech at Victoria University in New Zealand in March 2005:

We like to view Islam Hadhari as an effort to bring the faithful back to basics, to give primacy to good values and adherence to certain fundamentals. Islam Hadhari posits ten fundamental principles which Muslim nations and communities must demonstrate, namely:





First, faith and piety in the almighty god, Allah;


Second, a just and trustworthy government;


Third, a free and independent people;


Fourth, vigorous pursuit and mastery of knowledge;


Fifth, balanced and comprehensive economic development;


Sixth, a good quality of life for the people;


Seventh, protection of the rights of minority groups and women;


Eighth, cultural and moral integrity;


Ninth, safeguarding natural resources and the environment; and


Tenth, strong defence capabilities.

Just in case there is any doubt, I would also like to state that Islam Hadhari is entirely consistent with democracy because Islam Hadhari is all about living peacefully and respecting each other in the society. Islam Hadhari would encourage “mushawarah” (consensus building) as an approach to solving problems and would accept the “shura” (consultative process) as the best way of dealing with various societal issues. Islam Hadhari provides for democracy in much the same way as John Dewey, the classical guru on democracy, provided for democracy in his time. In 1916, in his book entitled “Democracy and Education”, John Dewey had stipulated that the democratic way of life requires of everyone that “each has to refer his own action to that of others, and to consider the action of others to give point and direction to his own”.

This passage is worth noting, not just because it’s the only time you’ll ever find an Asian leader using John Dewey as a validator of governing philosophy, but because that invocation emphasizes the pragmatic and moderate role that Islam Hadhari assigns to Islam in Malaysian governance. (Further backgrounder on the topic may be found here and here.)

This is not to pretend that under PM Badawi and Islam Hadhari, all is well at the intersection of Malaysian faith and society. It assuredly is not, and a good example of what goes wrong may be found in Malaysia’s Selangor state, where the ruling state party, the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, has just forbidden wholesale Islam Hadhari’s promulgation. The Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, or PAS, shocked the ruling coalition, of which Badawi is the national leader, when it seized Selangor’s government in the epochal March 2008 Malaysian elections. Selangor is no backwater, as it directly adjoins the national capital at Kuala Lumpur — its control by the opposition therefore affords it the opportunity to directly challenge the ruling coalition’s policies and practices at the country’s heart.

Herein lies another point worth noting: the PAS is one of the three key members of the opposition coalition, which is itself headed by Western media darling Anwar Ibrahim. It should be recalled that Ibrahim has confidently predicted his own ascent to the Prime Ministerial office by September — so it should be asked who he will bring to power with him. If the PAS will lead Malaysia as a senior coalition partner under an Ibrahim government, it’s worth noting the PAS’s public record. A quick survey leads one to note that the PAS has a history of endorsing shari’a law, including “punishments of stoning, whipping and amputation“; protests against non-Muslim Malaysians; and offering “rhetorical support for Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the Taliban regime.” Ibrahim himself is quite aware of this, and has offered some weak defenses of his alliance with the PAS — but he is not, on the whole, especially concerned with their excesses. Americans may feel differently.

The PAS prohibition on Islam Hadhari in Selangor state, then, is not merely a tactical swipe at a political opponent. It is a fundamental expression of what the PAS believes, and a forthright preview of what it will seek if and when it is part of Malaysia’s ruling coalition. In this light, the success of Islam Hadhari is not some obscure doctrinal dispute in a faraway country, but a very real and current issue in Islam’s own worldwide struggle to accommodate modernity. Americans in the post-9/11 era don’t need any reminder just how much this matters to them — and so we watch Selangor state with concern.

Sure, the 2008 Miss Malaysia Universe pageant is underway, but have you seen the real celebration of Malaysian poise and beauty? I speak, of course, of Malaysian Dreamgirl. Behold:

High art it ain’t, but as a glimpse into Malaysia’s pop culture scene — and its intersection with the wired young set — it’s not too bad. Note the ready Anglophone tendencies of the contestants and the local television news: that’s a society plugged in to the wider world.

We mentioned here the efforts of former PM Mahathir to race-bait his way back to popularity, by invoking the convenient specter of Singaporeans and Malaysian Chinese, and their purported plans to seize control of Malaysian life and territory. (Suffice it to say that the principal beneficiaries of the Iskandar Malaysia project that Mahathir denounced will be Mahathir’s own fellow Malays.) Sadly, this is not a new theme for Mahathir, who rose to power in no small part on his ideology of Malay supremacy; nor in Malaysian society, which spent much of its first post-colonial decade wracked by racial troubles that resulted, among other things, in Chinese-majority Singapore’s expulsion from Malaysia. The difference between the two is that Malaysian society has largely moved on — though there is, quite obviously, more road to be traveled here — while Mahathir has not.

Were this just a case of Mahathir being Mahathir, things would probably blow over in time. Unfortunately, events have their own logic, and it appears now that a new irritant to Malaysian-Singaporean relations — and consequently, Malay-Chinese relations — may arise: sometime in the coming 24 hours, the International Court of Justice in the Hague will decide whether a small, uninhabitable island in the Singapore Straits — Pedra Branca or Pulau Batu Puteh, depending on which country’s claim you favor — belongs to Malaysia or Singapore. Unlike many such disputes (Isla Perejil, anyone?), this one is not inherently meaningless — there’s a maritime boundary at stake athwart the world’s busiest shipping lane, and so both nations are paying close attention.

There’s not much to be said on this one. The merits of the case are sufficiently opaque to preclude third parties from having an opinion, and still less interest. But it’s worth noting, as it would be a pity indeed to have this minor territorial dispute stoke the embers that Mahathir Mohamad is so desperately fanning.