Where is Malaysia's 'Moderate Islam' project heading?

Where is Malaysia's 'Moderate Islam' project heading?
JP/7/SINCU

Where is Malaysia's 'Moderate Islam' project heading?

Farish A. Noor
Sinchew Daily
Asia News Network
Selangor, Malaysia

Malaysia is, at the moment at least, hot stuff.

From the ever-increasing number of foreign tourists who flock
to the shopping malls of the country in search of good bargains
and a vibrant nightlife; to foreign investors who remain
undeterred by Malaysia's rising labor costs thanks to the
guaranteed assurance that the skilled labor of Malaysia is able
to manufacture goods and offer services that are technologically
more advanced than what is on offer in neighboring countries.

It is for these reasons that Malaysia remains on the world map
as both a tourist destination and a viable country to invest in.

The other major selling point that is currently in Malaysia's
favor is the fact that the country's political leadership has
gone out of its way to present an image of Malaysia as a bastion
of what is sometimes called "Moderate Islam."

Malaysia today -- along with Muslim countries like Turkey,
Pakistan and Indonesia -- is considered a major ally in
Washington's unilateral "war on terror" and the government of
Malaysia, cognizant of the geopolitical realities that it has to
address and cope with, has deployed an image in keeping with this
newfound role.

More than ever, the government of Prime Minister Abdullah
Badawi has projected itself as the bastion of Islamic moderation
and has sold the image of the country as an alternative model to
other less-than-liberal regimes in the Arab world.

But after more than one year in office, both local Malaysian
political observers and foreign diplomats are wondering where
Malaysia's "Moderate Islam" project is meant to take the country.

Events over the past few months have suggested that despite
the rhetoric of reform, tolerance and moderation, there remain
deep undercurrents of religious conservatism in the country.

Earlier in the year more than a hundred young Malaysians were
arrested by the country's religious "morality police" squads on
the grounds that by going to bars and nightclubs and being seen
(allegedly) partying and drinking alcohol they had broken the
law.

The methods of enforcement used led to a vocal outcry from the
country's human rights groups, when it was revealed that the
youngsters were put into vans, humiliated and in some cases
verbally abused, and brought to the lock-up.

Recently another case sparked off similar concerns about the
fundamental rights of Malaysians when two young men were caught
drinking alcohol and brought to the religious court.

While these developments continue at their ponderous pace, the
political leadership of the country continues to repeat the
mantra of Islamic moderation, tolerance and pluralism.

What, therefore, is really happening in Malaysia today?

In the capitals of Europe -- notably Paris and Berlin -- there
exists the growing perception that despite the laudatory rhetoric
of Prime Minister Badawi there is a leakage of political power in
the country.

While the Executive says one thing to the international
community, the realities on the ground in Malaysia would suggest
that the shift towards a more narrow, literalist and
fundamentally conservative brand of normative Islam is at work.

The main obstacle faced by the Executive in Malaysia today is
having to deal with the gigantic, cumbersome and some might add
economically costly parallel religious bureaucracy that was set
up since the beginning of the Mahathir era (1981-2003).

Mahathir's Islamisation policy, like that of Pakistan,
Nigeria, Sudan and the Arab states, was essentially a means by
which the post-colonial state tried to buy off potential domestic
opposition by offering jobs, income and social status to the
Malay-Muslim majority community.

During the 1970s to the late 1990s, this was the most
effective means to ensure that the country's growing Malay-Muslim
population would stay loyal to the ruling UMNO party, that in
turn used the state machinery as its own instrument of patronage
and control.

Along with this came a host of religious laws, rules, norms
and institutions -- all patronized by the state and paid for by
the Malaysian tax-payer -- aimed at keeping the Malay-Muslim
population in line.

The net result has been the creation of a vast state-
controlled patronage machine that provided for the needs of the
Malays, while keeping them under the surveillance and control of
the state and the UMNO party.

This could only be maintained however, as long as the economic
boom was going well and foreign direct investment (FDI) was
pouring into the country.

Following the economic crisis of 1997-1998 however, the
Malaysian state's patronage machine has faced several hard
knocks.

Can the Malaysian state keep the engines of patronage and
social control going, and is the Prime Minister still running the
show?

For all intents and purposes, the impression that the
Malaysian ship of state is sailing rudderless is gaining ground.
For the past few months and weeks, the parallel religious
bureaucracy has tweaked the whiskers of the federal government
and gotten away with it.

Prime Minister Badawi may have wooed the international
community with his talk of "Moderate Islam" in Malaysia, but
should we ever come to the day when Malaysian citizens are
whipped and scarred by the religious authorities, it would be
hard indeed to convince anyone that the brand of normative Islam
in Malaysia is a moderate one.

Long before the TV screens and newspapers are covered with
images of bleeding Malaysians, the Executive will have to state
clearly, once and for all, that there cannot be two systems and
two governments in the country.