Farish A Noor

(From www.othermalaysia.org.  With permission)

April 10, 2008)

 
As the dust settles in the wake of the recent elections in Malaysia, many political observers are questioning whether the coalition of opposition parties, who are ever so close to gaining an upper hand in the Parliament, are actually about to come to power for the first time.  In the midst of this intense speculation, some cynical voices are raising doubts about whether the opposition coalition can actually get together as a cohesive political alliance and present themselves as a viable alternative to the now increasingly decrepit and redundant National Front (BN) coalition.

            The reason for this apparent uncertainty lies in the composition of the opposition front at the moment.  Dominated for the first time by the People’s Justice Party (PKR), the two other major component parties happen to be the secular-democratic Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the Islamist party (PAS).  Now that this opposition coalition seems poised to take over the country, the question is being asked:  Can the Islamists of PAS work with their secular-leftist comrades of the DAP and abandon their long-cherished goal of creating an Islamic state in Malaysia?

            One is struck by such a question as it is loaded from the outset.  It presupposes a certain fixity of discourse and modality on the part of Islamist parties like PAS which apparently (or so it seems to be suggested) is not present in other parties; but why should we assume such a thing?

            For a start, a quick look at the track record of all Islamist parties worldwide will show that they have all evolved and adapted to the needs and interests of politics, just like any other party.  While it is true that religious-based parties (be they Islamist, Christian or Hindu) have as their fundamental ideology an interpretation of their respective religions seen through the lens of politics, it is precisely this marriage of power and faith that leads to the adaptation of religion for political ends.  (Of course this is also the reason why religious conservatives and purists do not relish the politicization of religion, as it leads to the instrumental use of faith for political goals – but that is another story altogether.)

            Looking at the rise and fall of religious-based parties worldwide, we can see how many of them have indeed compromised for the sake of politics.  The Hindu right-wing BJP party of India, for instance, clamored for a Hindu state and foregrounded the exclusive demands of Hindus primarily as long as it was out of power.  But during its brief spell in government, even the BJP was forced in the end to adapt to the realities of multi-religious India and made enormous concessions to win over the support of Indian Muslims and Christians.

            Likewise, many Islamist parties and movements in the Arab world have also made the same sort of important and symbolic concessions to non-Muslims in their bid for power.  Even movements like Hamas and Hizbullah have opened the channels of dialogue with Christians and other faith communities, cognizant of the fact that there can be no real and sustainable path to power without pragmatic compromise and adaptation.

            Admittedly Malaysia’s Islamist party PAS has made some electoral blunders in the past.  But PAS also has a progressive past it can and should be proud of, as when the party was led by its most progressive leader Dr. Burhanuddin al-Helmy in the 1960s.  PAS was then widely seen as a left-leaning Islamist party due to its strong anti-colonial stand, its support of the trade union movement, and its willingness to support the Malayan Communist party in its struggle against British colonialism.  If PAS could have been so forward thinking earlier, then what is stopping it from being progressive today?

            The fact remains that the ruling National Front coalition (BN) in Malaysia today is on its last legs, and fifty years of race-based communalist and divisive politics has finally taken its toll on the country.  Malaysia and Malaysians have voted for change and it looks as if the time for that change is drawing closer.  Judging by PAS’s pragmatic record and successes in the past, the Islamist party may yet surprise the skeptics by adapting its Islamist politics to suit the needs and aspirations of the younger generation of Malaysian voters who voted for the party – not because they want to see an Islamic state in Malaysia, rather to signal the coming of a new Malaysian politics at last.  PAS should heed these signs and prepare itself for the new era of Malaysian politics to come.  After all, it survived five decades of repression by the colonial government and then the Malaysian government, so why couldn’t it adapt yet again?

Dr. Farish A. Noor is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore; and one of the founders of the www.othermalaysia.org research site.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 6:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.