Critical Thoughts

I thank The Malaysian (#32 in the series) for tagging me to be Malaysian #31, part of the “50 Posts to Independence” first conceived by brother Nizam Bashir. At the moment I am not too sure whether he will receive the “calling”, but I am tagging Nik Nazmi to be post number #30.

What does it mean to me to be de jure, a Malaysian? That is an interesting question to be posed to me; for if it were to be judged by the principles of jus soli, I will certainly be disqualified from being counted as a Malaysian. Does being born in the US of A makes one a Malaysian, I wonder? By the merit of race, I am hardly of a Malay lineage — there are Javanese, Bugis, Acheh and even Chinese blood in me. Yet, whether it is just a simple twist of fate or simply a path of destiny that I have yet to fathom at the moment, I am most certainly a Malaysian, or at the least, culturally so.

Although these days, I have most certainly shun the principles of race-based politics and the culture of race that has dominated this nation for far too long. I believe that the years of politically appealing to one particular race and pandering to each community’s needs and wants has resulted in an entrenched mindset, a mentality of being sieged. Whether one wants to admit it or otherwise, the events of the past years — issues ranging from the Article 11 coalition’s attempt to undermine the de facto status of Islam in the nation, the case of Muhammad Abdullah Moorthy, the apostasy of Lina Joy and the empowering of IFC which has nothing whatsoever to fostering dialogs and understanding — has begun to shake the foundations of this nation which has always upheld Islam as “the religion of the Federation” while at the same time affirming the right of other religions to exist. The virtue of being a Malaysian, I feel, is that Malaysia is a kaleidoscope of religions, an ummatism of religions if you will care to call it so. But how quick we are to identify ourselves as a Malaysian [insert race here], instead of a Malaysian Muslim, a Malaysian Hindu or a Malaysian Buddhist! Alas, we prefer to relapse into the mindset of the closet-minded racist, rather than to embrace the all-encompassing values of religion.

Truly, one can say that Malaysia is as close as a person can be to the era of Muslim Spain — Al-Andalus — a cultural melting pot of knowledge and power where Islam is the sole, dominant force in administration and governance and yet at the same time all religions — Islam, Christianity and Judaism — come together and produced one of the most scientifically-advanced and modern technologies that has ever been created by a nation, and this in an era when Europe was gripped in the darkness of religious bigotry, myopia and cultural backwardness known as the “Dark Ages of Europe”. If Islam were to gain its cultural dominance and advances of the yesteryears, it will most certainly begin in Malaysia, in these current times.

Perhaps I am wrong, that this may be just wishful thinking. It is not that I am not aware that some Malaysians do not like this type of reasoning; thinking, perhaps, that struggling for Daulah Islamiyyah from Perlis to Sabah equals to some sort of enforced Arab culture on the peoples of this land. That some people would still think in this manner as we approach 50 years of Independence certainly could not be helped. But with time, I am convinced that Malaysians may soon learn to accept the diversity that can exist within an Islamic Malaysia. The project of secularism in the country has only resulted in corruption, stiffling of press freedom and…yes, more racism and sowing of distrust among the ummahs of this country. Why will Malaysians not give the Islamist project a chance when the secularism alternative has clearly failed, I wonder?

So as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of what is now known as the Federation of Malaysia, may God wills it that the prejudices and short-sightedness about Islam in general is reduced — though I doubt it could be totally eliminated — and that perhaps one day non-Muslims will be able to embrace the idea that a better Malaysia with the nullification of corruption, administrative mismanagement and miscarriages of justice is a Malaysia which not only encompassed freedom of religion without any compromise on the religious laws of the “religion of the Federation”, but also upholds the religious nomocracy which is Islamic governance par excellence and bring Malaysia towards a Pax Islamica.

To be an Islamist who has some ambition in the future, insha’allah, to be involved directly in the legislative, striving for the implementation of the Islamic project in this nation, does not make one any less Malaysian. After all, being Islamic does not mean that one has to abandon cultural beliefs or be less tolerant of one another.