[lit-ideas] MALAYSIA: 11th General Election results (commentary)
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:58:30 -0700 (PDT)
Remember the Japan Times commentary of the Malaysian
elections ? The same article appeared on another list,
and a commentary on the commentary was posted. I
reproduce it here with the poster's permission.
O.K.
(snipped) I wouldn't ask anyone to feign
neutrality in writing about
events
>about which s/he cares.
>
> But what _is_ an alternative way to think
about ethnicity,
>religion, secularity and the vote distribution in the
21 March 2004
>General Election? If Cheo is reading too much into
the results, where
did
>he go wrong?
That's a lot of questions. Without going into a
detailed analysis of the elections and the results,
and largely omitting the last matter,
perhaps the most interesting of the lot but requiring
a longish
discussion:
1. It's all a bit over the top, pinning way too much
on the outcome
of one elections -- as witness the opening paragraphs.
By this token,
we should all be getting worried about the performance
of the PKS in
the recent Indonesian polls; but contrary to the way
the Malaysian
polls were interpreted, the media chose to interpret
PKS' performance
to be the result of its downplaying Islam. That so?
Witness the
recent demonstrations following the assassination of
the Hamas
leader, complete with demonstrators dressed up in mock
suicide bomber
outfits! And PKS got its support in Jakarta from
students and younger
professionals, it seems.
But more to the point, the ding-dong between UMNO and
PAS is hardly a
new thing as any long-term observer of Malaysia would
know. To try
and site it within the current global (or should that
be "western")
take on Islam and politics is to miss this. I think
Carl Thayer's
piece in the FEER about a year ago put it well -- much
of what is
happening here as also Indonesia or the Philippines or
Thailand is
local, responding to local events, concerns, forces,
history. Sure,
they aren't insulated from global events (and events
in Iraq and the
explicit US 'shift' on Palestine is going to cause
more turmoil), nor
from globalised persons and groups attempting to
utilise such local
events and concerns for their own ends. But no, they
don't
define/exhaust Malaysia nor the Malaysian
situation/context. The
so-called Kumpulan Militan Malaysia probably raises
more fears
outside the country than in: there was more bloodshed
twenty years
ago when another so-called deviant militant group was
put down in
Baling. There were more fears thirty years ago when
there was a spate
of attacks on Hindu temples, as also raids on a police
station or two.
2. To cast PAS and UMNO as at opposite ends of the
spectrum is
misleading, I think. They are both composites, and
much depends on
the dominant factions, or even who's the leader
(thirty years ago,
PAS was cast as a more extreme UMNO, in terms of
racialism; today,
it's the "fundamentalist" counterpoint to UMNO's
"progressivism"). In
Mahathir's case, he was evidently a secularist, and
exercised a grip
on UMNO. We'll have to see about Badawi. That's not to
say there
isn't a significant "fundamentalist" faction within
UMNO as well --
e.g., a couple (non-Muslim) is currently being charged
for indecent
behaviour in the park outside the Twin Towers,
apprehended by
officers of the KL City Council. They are alleged to
have been
hugging and kissing (not quite "dogging"); they deny
this and say
they were simply holding hands. In Shah Alam, Selangor
state, there
has been a ding-dong battle over the construction of a
Catholic
Church over the past 15 years: last I looked, Selangor
has never ever
been under PAS, nor has PAS ever received more than
20% of the vote
in Selangor. Contrariwise, the largest sleeping Buddha
in the country
is in Kota Baru, "fundamentalist" Kelantan, and the
"fundamentalist"
chief minister has even visited it, not ordered it to
be torn down or
blown up.
3. There's a disproportionality of seats and votes by
virtue of the
first-past-the-post system. Using seats as a guide is
hardly helpful.
Moreover, for the first time ever, there's been more
than the usual
misgivings about the electoral process. Previously,
there would be
the usual -- justified -- complaints about
constituency
re-delineations (gerry-mandering), media bias, etc.,
but despite all
the complaints about "phantom voters", it was largely
accepted that
whatever shenanigans that went on, went on at the
margins. Malaysia
has had the good fortune of having the polling process
generally
accepted -- a good basis of ultimate legitimacy, as
the other
gerry-mandering was, despite complaints, taken to be
part of the
universal game of electoral politics. Now, the chaos
of polling day
has called that into question. Hardly an auspicious
departure.
4. The percentage of the vote. Again, take a breakdown
by state or
region. What emerges is that PAS retains its solid
bedrock support of
around 40-45% of the voters in the northern states.
And around its
usual 15-20% elsewhere. Very far from being dealt a
death blow.
5. Ethnic/development characterisation: "unlike other
states where
Chinese, Indians and other ethnic groups are found in
greater
numbers". What "other ethnic groups" in Selangor,
Negri Sembilan,
Melaka, Johor, and Pahang -- the last incidentally,
not one of the
better developed states of the peninsula either?
Malays (Muslims) it
turns out, many of them sons and daughters of the
Malays (Muslims) of
the "most rural, underdeveloped and mostly populated
by Malays (and
Muslims)" four northern states (they are places of net
out-migration). If one were to take a quick poll of
the universities,
it might come as a bit of a shock the number of
lecturers whose state
of origin is Kelantan, PAS' alleged fortress -- just
so happens that
Kelantan, that peculiarly backward place, has one of
the highest
rates of tertiary educated in the country, and that's
not counting
all the ones they export! As it also happens to be the
state where
one sees more women small-scale traders/entrepreneurs
than elsewhere,
trading well into the night, not yet hounded into
their homes by
"fundamentalist" PAS. As also the one state in the
peninsula with a
population that has shown itself willing and able to
change
governments through the electoral process -- PAS ruled
from 1959 to
1979; UMNO from 1979 to 1990; PAS from 1990 to date,
although it is
my belief (founded on nothing more than my belief)
that PAS might
well have gone down in 1999 if not for the treatment
of Anwar
Ibrahim. It might do well to understand the
particularities of
Kelantan and Kelantan politics. By the way, PAS, other
than a brief
period in the 1950s, had never ruled Terengganu until
1999; in 1995,
Terengganu voted UMNO handsomely. And, incidentally,
for all that
record of supporting UMNO, Terengganu has the second
highest poverty
rate in the country, as also the highest infant
mortality rate. So,
what's the link between development, poverty and the
strength or
weakness of PAS?
6. So to his punch lines -- the four point conclusion.
Re the "finally", enough said early on in this note.
Only to add that
the chaos of the elections this time might contribute
to the radical
outcome that's feared. If the opposition loses faith
in the electoral
process, then radical elements have fertile ground to
recruit. Any
fair-minded observation of PAS would show that they
were intent on
playing the electoral game. I think, despite all the
noise made, they
still are. Perhaps not the most competent players --
but in the
Malaysian context, it's damned hard to be a competent
player, as you
basically start out with a stacked deck.
Re the reference to French law -- totally misplaced,
I'd think.
Western secular states too would feel some discomfort
at the
particular construction of secularism that French law
has under its
concept of "laicisme"; but beyond that, on a purely
pragmatic basis,
unless one is going to forbid private schools
altogether, the French
route is the route to separation and, probably,
greater
radicalisation. Whatever, to try to even suggest that
as something to
be considered in Malaysia, or any other country! Not
going to happen,
not especially now, in the 21st century. And
definitely not going to
happen in Malaysia because control of the mosque is
one of the routes
of political power -- unless of course it's a
separation which is not
a separation, but the subjection of the mosque to the
state. But
then, that's already the case to a pretty good extent
-- Friday
sermons have to be cleared for delivery.
On the "third" point, there seems to be some confusion
on the
writer's part about the Sekolah Agama Rakyat
controversy. Nor is the
use of English for the teaching of science and
mathematics some
magical route to secularism -- far from it, as might
be surmised from
looking at the educational background and
specialisations of some of
the stalwarts of religio-politics. But then, a
liberal-critical
education would run counter to the desire of the state
for control --
there are some university students being issued
show-cause letters as
to why disciplinary action shouldn't be taken against
them: their
fault? campaigning in the recent elections, for the
wrong party (oh,
they were Chinese (non-Muslim))! As for the content in
the religious
schools, perhaps a few hours spent in front of the
state-controlled
TV watching the religious programmes might be more
instructive than
taking the words of politicians at face value.
And on points one and two: yes, there is a need for a
wide-ranging
discussion on the modalities of being Muslim in the
contemporary
world. Has PAS contributed to that? Yes, in both
positive and
negative ways. It's sudden rise in 1999 allowed for a
discussion that
would have been ruled out of court by the government
pre-1999. The
PAS leadership itself tried to bring its views to
others, in the
process also opening up discussion. So, in fact, even
if in a
back-handed way, PAS has actually contributed to a
necessary
discussion in a country which would be democratic --
quite a distant
cry from the "extremism" or "fundamentalism" they are
cast with.
Which is not to say that, indeed, quite a few of their
moves have not
been retrograde -- but they do not hold a monopoly on
that.
But is the argument settled? Far from it. Stripping
away the peculiar
concern with Islam, it is evident that in the
contemporary world, the
issue of religion, state and society is very much on
the table --
from the United States to Indonesia. How will the
Supreme Court rule
on "under God"?
Finally, the commentator evidently thinks there's the
state, and who
controls the state has the world in his hands.
Unfortunately, the
ferment and turmoil is in the society. A choice made
at one
particular election is far from the end of the story.
And it is not
evident that the state can shape society at will, at
least not in
Malaysia (although sometimes, the BN seems to think
so, as does PAS,
but at least PAS has, this time around, learned
otherwise). Don't be
altogether surprised if PAS should make a come-back
the next time
around. I just hope they've learned a lesson from this
time around --
no, not to resort to subterfuge, but to re-think some
of the
modalities in which Muslims can live their lives in
the contemporary
world in accordance with their beliefs and their
conscience, and not
to seek to achieve it by legislative fiat.
Finally, finally -- in a different more light-hearted
vein, one could
point to two contests to divine the ups-and-downs of
politics in
Malaysia, and the voting behaviour of Malay-Muslims.
In both
contests, the losing candidate was once the Imam, the
prayer leader,
of the National Mosque. In one contest, he stood on a
PAS ticket, in
the other, on an UMNO ticket. In both cases, they lost
to women. In
one instance, to Anwar Ibrahim's wife, Wan Azizah. In
the other
instance, to Mashitah Ibrahim, who's also a religious
scholar. The
Imam on an UMNO ticket lost in Penang. The one on a
PAS ticket lost
in Kedah, in Baling, one of the most backward parts of
Kedah, itself
characterised by our commentator as one of those
backward,
underdeveloped states populated by Malay (Muslims). In
both
instances, the margin was small, in one case, paper
thin. Go figure!
kj khoo
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