The role of Islamic cultures in Malaysian politics and society (original) (raw)
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The Politicisation of Islam in Malaysia and its Opponents
Islam and Civilisational Renewal 12, no. 1 (2021): 27-52
This article profiles four prominent detractors of Islam's politicisation in contemporary Malaysia. While much ink has been spilt profiling the promulgators of politicised Islam, whether in Malaysia or elsewhere, comparatively little has been written about those who oppose it. This article is a modest attempt to rectify that deficiency. It begins, however, with a brief history of that politicisation process as it has occurred in Malaysia, with particular reference to Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) and Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM). This brief overview traces Malaysia's unique form of politicised Islam to late twentieth-century intercommunal tensions driven by Malay poverty and cultural anxiety. These enabled long-standing ethno-religious associations to facilitate a blending of Islamist ideology with issues surrounding Malay rights. It is within this context that we then examine the social and educational backgrounds, principal publications, records of activism, and ideological positions of four prominent critics of Malaysian Islam's politicisation, namely: Chandra Muzaffar, Zainah Anwar, Marina Mahathir, and Siti Kasim. The article concludes that all four figures differ from their counterparts in PAS and ABIM by possessing Western-orientated backgrounds, a long-standing dedication to multiculturalism, and a desire to orientate their work around human rights-based issues. The article concludes by suggesting how (or if) these detractors can impact the future direction of Malaysian politics.
Political Islam and the Recent Rise of Islamist Conservatism in Malaysia
ISEAS Perspective No. 58, 2013
Under Prime Minister Najib Razak, Malaysia has witnessed vigorous drives towards multiple visions of political Islam. This is not surprising. In truth, Islam has always been a pivotal factor in Malaysian politics, and different interpretations in both doctrine and practice have often arisen among successive generations of Malaysian Muslims. In addition, the rich cultural diversity of Southeast Asia enriched Malaysian Islam with accommodating mores from a variety of civilisational traditions, a recent manifestation being Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Islam Hadhari. After Abdullah lost power to Najib Razak in 2009, however, the defining of the Islamic framework of the nation has been effectively delegated to the official Islamic bureaucracy, whose horizons are coloured by Islamist uniformity rather than religiously acceptable Muslim plurality. This article discusses the impact of this delegation of power, which has exhibited ghastly consequences in the aftermath of Malaysia’s 13th General Elections.
Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 2015
Najib Razak’s tenure as Malaysia’s sixth prime minister has witnessed vigorous drives towards multiple visions of political Islam, orchestrated by different sets of Islamists in both overtly political groups and non-state activist clusters. While Islam has always been a pivotal factor in Malaysian politics, interpretations of Islam, concerning both doctrine and practice, have arisen among successive generations of Malaysian Muslims. Since the beginning of Najib Razak premiership, however, the initiative in defining the Islamic framework of the nation has, with ghastly consequences, been effectively delegated to the official Islamic bureaucracy, whose horizons are coloured by visions of Islamist uniformity rather than a religiously acceptable Muslim plurality. At the same time, the emergence of a range of civil-society actors has complicated the Islamist terrain. Najib faces a predicament in continuing Malaysia’s practice of pluralist politics whilst at the same time accommodating inclusive notions of Islam in his management of the body politic.
Islamization in Malaysia: processes and dynamics
Over the past three decades Malaysian society has undergone radical change and transformation. On one level this has been brought about by the country’s rapid economic transformation, but equally significant has been the deepening Islamization of the country. From banking to law, from dress to education policy, almost no sector of Malaysian society has escaped the growing influence of Islam upon the socioeconomic and political make-up of the country. The prevalent explanation for this dynamic has been the political competition between the United Malay National Organization and the Islamic opposition party, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, since the early 1980s. Such explanations, however, clearly marginalize the role of other societal factors and dynamics. Consequently, this article contends Islamization in Malaysia has created a series of processes that have produced results which are self-reinforcing. Ironically, the strategy for diverting the extremes of Islamic revival by co-option has actually produced a far more dynamic penetration of state and society by conservative Muslims who have become a powerful constituency supportive of the further religious coloration of government bureaucracies and programmes. Keywords: Islamization; Malaysia; electoral competition; co-option; penetration; UMNO; PAS
Southeast Asian Studies (Kyoto), 2018
This article seeks to analyze the evolving development and contestations regarding the interplay of Islam and politics in Malaysia’s public space for a period of 60 years (1957–2017) since its independence as a nation-state. A crucial element in this discourse is the official position of Islam as the “religion of the federation” in the Malaysian Constitution, which simultaneously guarantees the freedom of other religions embraced by almost half of the country’s population. The population became even more diverse ethnically and religiously upon the formation of the Federation of Malaysia, which replaced Malaya, on September 16, 1963. Closely related to the discourse of political Islam in Malaysia, the evolving concepts of “religion” and “secularism” in Malaysia’s Islamic context have undergone considerable shifts as a result of constant public engagement by an assortment of politicians, commentators, scholars, bureaucrats, and civil society activists. As the argument develops, Malaysia’s interaction with Islam has been essentialized by political interests such that boundaries are hardened between what is considered Islamic and un-Islamic. The increasingly rigid positions adopted by Islamic stakeholders have arguably worsened both interreligious and intra-Muslim relations, with progressive Muslim voices increasingly finding themselves marginalized in the state-controlled political environment.
Political Islam and Islamist Politics in Malaysia
2013
Najib Razak’s tenure as Malaysia’s sixth Prime Minister has witnessed vigorous drives towards multiple visions of political Islam, separately orchestrated by different sets of Islamists of both overtly political groups and non-state activist clusters. While Islam has always been a pivotal factor in Malaysian politics, interpretations of Islam have not unusually arisen among successive generations of Malaysian Muslims in both doctrine and practice. In addition, the rich cultural diversity of Southeast Asia helped sway Malaysian Islam into accommodating mores from a variety of civilisational traditions, the latest manifestation being Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Islam Hadhari. Since the assumption of power by Najib Razak, however, the initiative of defining the Islamic framework of the nation has been effectively delegated to the official Islamic bureaucracy, whose horizons are coloured by visions of Islamist uniformity rather than a religiously acceptable Muslim plurality. This article discusses the impact of such power delegation, which has exhibited ghastly consequences in the aftermath of Malaysia’s Thirteenth General Elections.
Defying the Global: The Cultural Connotations of "Islam" in Malaysia
The cultural connotations of the word "Islam" is analysed in this study using a corpus-based semantic prosody analysis of Malaysian newspaper reports in English and Malay. Approximately 1.6 million words of Malaysian newspaper reports published between year 2014 and 2015 were used to develop two comparable sub-corpora of English and Malay data. The downward collocations (words with semantic content, i.e. nouns, verbs and adjectives) of the word "Islam" in the two sub-corpora formed the data for analysis and Partington's (2004) categorisation of semantic prosodies, i.e. positive, negative or neutral was employed in determining its prosody. The collocational patterns of "Islam" that emerged in the corpus of study suggest that the word has mostly positive and neutral prosodies in Malaysian newspapers. The cultural connotations of "Islam" that emerged from the analysis of the Malay corpus reflect the familiarity of Islam and its inherent link with the Malay language and culture, evident from the use and naturalisation of Arabic words pertaining to Islam in the Malay language. In the English corpus, the cultural connotations of "Islam" suggest its institutionalisation in the country's education system, banking system and financial establishments. These cultural connotations are in contrast with the generally negative representation of Islam in the Western and global discourse.
Islamization in Malaysia: processes and dynamics -- Jason P. Abbott & Sophie Gregorios-Pippas
ver the past three decades Malaysian society has undergone radical change and transformation. On one level this has been brought about by the country's rapid economic transformation, but equally significant has been the deepening Islamization of the country. From banking to law, from dress to education policy, almost no sector of Malaysian society has escaped the growing influence of Islam upon the socioeconomic and political make-up of the country. The prevalent explanation for this dynamic has been the political competition between the United Malay National Organization and the Islamic opposition party, Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, since the early 1980s. Such explanations, however, clearly marginalize the role of other societal factors and dynamics. Consequently, this article contends Islamization in Malaysia has created a series of processes that have produced results which are self-reinforcing. Ironically, the strategy for diverting the extremes of Islamic revival by co-option has actually produced a far more dynamic penetration of state and society by conservative Muslims who have become a powerful constituency supportive of the further religious coloration of government bureaucracies and programmes.
The main thrust of the paper is that religion plays an important role in the national identity of a Malaysian nation despite its multi-religious nature. The paper looks at the spectrum of the debate about the identification of Malaysia as an Islamic state and the opposition to this epitaph by some who feel that by the purpose of its permission of other religions, it will be wrong to describe it as an official Islamic nation, even though Islam is its officially recognized religion in the constitution. Thus, the paper concludes that despite the debate about its national identity, Malaysia has moved towards being identified as an Islamic nation (in fact, a model Islamic nation in the modern world), especially in the international community, which nonetheless takes adequate care of the interests of other religions by giving them the space to co-exist with it in a pluralistic, multi-ethnic and multi-religious state.