Religion comes to the fore in Malaysian election campaign

Pavin Chachavalpongpun, The Nation, Asia News Network, Bangkok

The streets in Malaysia are being spruced up with colorful posters, political party flags and massive campaign banners. It is election time for the Malaysians, with the vote set to take place on Sunday.

Since the snap election was called, the battle to grab votes has been fierce, particularly between the Barisan Nasional (BN), a government coalition of 14 parties including the UMNO (United Malay National Organization), and the PAS (Parti Islam SeMalaysia), a theocratic party catering mainly to Malay Muslims.

Malaysian Premier Abdullah Badawi's decision to dissolve parliament was seen as a way to tap the "feel-good factor" that has accompanied his first four months in office.

He has shown an eagerness to step out of Mahathir Mohamad's shadow, while leaving his own mark with hard-hitting policies such as the war on corruption.

Since taking the top job, Abdullah has been trying hard to cement his new identity as a versatile leader, capable of responding to the needs of people across the spectrum of racial, social and economic backgrounds.

Malaysia is a multiracial society where, for centuries, the majority Malay ethnic group has coexisted alongside sizable Chinese and Indian minorities. Through the years, however, local politics have been mostly dominated by the Malay Muslims, with the previous prime minister holding the highest political office for 22 years.

But the practice of unity is about to subside as race becomes a major political backdrop in the coming election. The Malay vote remains quintessential, as the group accounts for 60 percent of the country's 25 million people.

But the UMNO and the PAS need to compete for the Chinese and Indian votes to bolster their electoral showing.

Each party has come up with different electoral strategies to satisfy these segments of society.

From the perspective of the Malays, religion will be a principal factor in the vote. The PAS has already employed Islam as a political tool in condemning Abdullah for not being Islamic enough. At the same time it also bluntly announced: "Those who vote for PAS will earn a token to heaven."

The PAS has thus clearly revealed its electoral hand -- carrying out direct attacks on Abdullah, deflating his credentials as a religious man and trying to swing the Malay vote against him. The rationale for using this politico-religious weapon is that most Malay voters are devout Muslims, who at some stage might wish to transform Malaysia into an Islamic state.

In contrast to the PAS, Abdullah presents a novel version of Islam, known as Islam Hadhari or "progressive Islam" -- a moderate, peaceful and just form of Islam. He has also persuaded Islamic intellectuals to join his party, hoping that they might bring a new angle to the coming election, now largely blemished by religious overtones.

But the Malays' appetite for Islam might pose a real danger here. In response to the hunger for religion, all of the political camps are preoccupied with giving maximum airtime to religion, thus sidelining other social problems that might potentially threaten Malaysia in the long run.

Religious talk has overshadowed the intensifying issue of village poverty. As a result, issues like the livelihood and development of poor Malay farmers are unlikely to get much of a hearing in this campaign season.

Meanwhile, the characters of the Chinese and Indian voters differ greatly from that of the Malays, both in terms of what they want to see from the new government and how the leaders might deliver what these two groups judge to be important.

Certainly religion, considered by the Malays to be number one on the agenda, is pushing the Chinese and Indians into the hands of the BN. As Lim Guan Eng, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party, said: "It is any party, but the PAS. This is clearly the sentiment because the Chinese fear the PAS."

Chinese and Indian businessmen are increasingly traumatized by double standards in their everyday contacts with local authorities, so Abdullah's anti-corruption crusade has proven to be popular among them. The non-Malay groups portray themselves as the victims of corruption because they have little choice but to resort to payoffs to get government permits and approvals.

It would be wrong to think the PAS has given up altogether on the Chinese and Indian votes. The fact that UMNO's reputation is somewhat sullied by its inability to curb corruption helps brighten the image of the PAS as a sincere alternative. To soften his party's religion-centric reputation, PAS president Hadi Awang said: "Non-Muslims are free to practice their religion without any hindrance."

Unlike with the Malay vote, the UMNO and the PAS have to work hard to secure the support of the Chinese and Indians, who are well-educated and are demanding drastic societal changes, such as better education, more accessible healthcare and speedy economic growth.

Competition to win over voters from every race is a testimony to the existing multiracial politics in Malaysia. However, the different natures of the Malay and non-Malay votes put a lot of pressure on the government when it comes to fulfilling their very different requirements. It is therefore mandatory for the state to produce a tailor-made policy for each specific racial group in order to maintain so-called ethnic politics.

If Abdullah wins, he will be expected to accomplish the national dream of preserving Malaysia's multi-religious and multicultural character, and preventing social partiality and discrimination against non-Malays. His recent move to introduce a new, young class of political candidates signifies his departure from the old days when the UMNO was encumbered by the conservative thinking of Malay chauvinism.