Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times Barry Wain (grave mercy .TXT) 📖

agreeable personality, his Islamic scholarly background and the fact that he was not the demonized Dr. Mahathir. In lieu of further concessions to PAS, Abdullah produced a new formulation called Islam Hadhari, or Civilizational Islam, his own vehicle for showcasing Malaysia as a moderate Muslim country promoting economic development, progress and harmony. Abdullah's crushing victory, capturing 199 of 219 parliamentary seats, was achieved mainly at the expense of PAS, whose representation dropped from 27 seats to 6, while the party also lost control of Trengganu and held Kelantan by a thread. Although PAS actually recorded a slight increase in the popular vote from 1999, the election was a significant setback for the party.

Yet neither Abdullah's huge majority nor Islam Hadhari's stress on universal values would arrest the advance of a strict Islamist ideology, which had built up momentum over a couple of decades and taken on a life of its own. Righteous officials in bloated federal and state religious bureaucracies raided homes in the name of moral policing, splitting families where spouses were of different faiths and separating children from their parents.[117] Non-Muslims who sought legal redress were stymied by Dr. Mahathir's 1988 constitutional amendment giving sharia and civil courts mutually exclusive jurisdiction. Civil courts generally refused to hear cases involving family and Islamic matters, even where non-Muslims were trying to free their wives from rehabilitation centers or recover their children. In what amounted to a rebuke to the Mahathir administration, Judge Abdul Hamid Mohamad said in a ruling in the Federal Court, Malaysia's highest court, that Parliament should act to define jurisdictions clearly, rather than expect the courts to resolve the issue.[118]

In a closely-followed case, a Malay convert to Christianity was denied the right to switch religions. After converting at 26 and being baptized in 1998, Azlina Jailani applied to have her conversion legally recognized. Although her name change to Lina Joy was accepted in 1999 and noted on her identity card, her change of religion was not. Hoping to live openly as a Christian, she filed suit in the Federal Court, but in 2007 it rejected her appeal to have the word "Islam" deleted from the document. Two judges said in their majority decision that "a person cannot, at one's whims and fancies, renounce or embrace a religion".[119] Unable to remove the legal barrier to marrying her Christian fiance — he would have had to convert to Islam — Lina Joy is believed to have gone abroad to start a new life.

Despite Abdullah's enthusiasm for Islam Hadhari, one of whose ten principles is "protection of the rights of minority groups", he showed little interest in defending religious freedom. Unlike Dr. Mahathir, who at least slapped down those extremists he considered a threat to his interests, Abdullah governed passively and let religious zealots mock his claim to be heading a moderate Muslim administration. He seemed unable to resist pressures to increase the pace and range of Islamization. All policewomen, regardless of race and religion, were required to wear the traditional tudung head-covering for official functions. Mainstream books were banned, among them three by British religious writer Karen Armstrong described by Chandra Muzaffar, a public intellectual, as "intellectually illuminating and fair in their treatment of Islam".[120] When Islamic militants demonstrated against attempts to hold an inter-faith dialogue organized by "Article 11", a coalition of 13 religious and human rights groups named after the constitutional article that guarantees religious freedom, Abdullah backed the extremists. He shut down "Article 11" in 2006 in the interests of peace on the streets.

The extent of the morass bequeathed by Dr. Mahathir and aggravated by Abdullah, with Islam defining and dividing Malaysian politics, was clear by the firestorm ignited by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak's comment on 17 July 2007. He said Malaysia was an Islamic state and had never been secular.[121] It contradicted the historical record and split the Cabinet and the community.[122] Abdullah expressed his opinion, that Malaysia was neither a theocratic nor a secular state but a parliamentary democracy, implicitly repudiating both his predecessor and successor.[123] After 50 years of independence that included 22 years of Dr. Mahathir trying to reinvent Islam and out-pray PAS, Malaysia's record of religious and racial tolerance was under serious threat.

Notes

Patricia Martinez, "Perhaps He Deserved Better: The Disjuncture between Vision and Reality in Mahathir's Islam", in Bridget Welsh, ed., Reflections: The Mahathir Years (Washington: Southeast Asia Studies Program, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, 2004), p. 28.

Ibid., p. 30.

Farish A. Noor, "How Mahathir Became 'Mahazalim'", in The Other Malaysia: Writings on Malaysia's Subaltern History (Kuala Lumpur: Silverfishbooks, 2002), pp. 142-144.

Patricia Martinez, "Perhaps He Deserved Better", p. 36.

John Funston, "Malaysia", in Greg Fealy and Virginia Hooker, eds, Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia: A Contemporary Sourcebook (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2006), p. 54.

M. Sufian Hashim, "The Relationship between Islam and the State in Malaya", Intisari, vol. 1, no. 1, 1962, pp. 7-22.

John Funston, "Malaysia", in Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia, p. 54.

Ibid., p. 51.

Ibid., p. 54.

Ibid., p. 58.

Ibid., pp. 55-56.

Chandra Muzaffar, Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia (Petaling Jaya: Penerbit Fajar Bakti Sdn. Bhd., 1987), p. 3.

R.S. Milne and Diane K. Mauzy, Malaysian Politics Under Mahathir (London: Routledge, 1999), p. 83.

John Funston, "Political Careers of Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim: Parallel, Intersecting and Conflicting Lives", IKMAS Working Papers (Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), no. 15 (July 1998): i-iv, 1-32.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Mahathir bin Mohamad, The Malay Dilemma (Singapore: Times Books International, 1999 edition).

Mahathir Mohamad, Menghadapi Cabaran (Kuala Lumpur: Pustaka Anatara, 1976).

Mahathir Mohamad, The Challenge (Petaling Jaya: Pelanduk Publications (M) Sdn Bhd., 1986).

Mahathir bin Mohamad, The Malay Dilemma, p. 173.

Ibid., pp. 157-173.

Ibid., p. 173.

Patricia Martinez, "Mahathir, Islam, and the New Malay Dilemma", in Ho Khai Leong and James Chin, eds, Mahathir's Administration: Performance and Crisis in Governance (Singapore: Times Media Pte. Ltd., 2001), p. 221.

Email correspondence with Greg Barton, Herb Feith Research Professor for the Study of Indonesia, Monash University, 4 June 2008.

Mahathir Mohamad, The Challenge, p. 64.

Patricia Martinez, "Mahathir, Islam,