DON'T BE 'ULU', IT'S OK TO BE LIBERAL: Umno man tells Malays the Rukunegara specifies taking 'liberal approach'

PETALING JAYA - A Malay who is “liberal” is no less a Muslim or a traitor to his race as the word is enshrined in the Rukunegara, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said today.

The head of the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) pointed out that the word “liberal” is found in the preamble of the country’s national principles that states: “Ensuring a liberal approach towards our rich and diverse cultural traditions”.

“Not many people know it’s okay to be liberal in Malaysia,” Saifuddin said at the 7th National Congress on Integrity here, organised by the Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) and the Oriental Hearts and Mind Study Institute (OHMSI).

“You don’t become less Malay or less Muslim if you become a liberal,” the Umno man added.

“You don’t become less Malay or less Muslim if you become a liberal,” the Umno man told an audience of some 50 people invited to the conference.

In the past few years, certain Malay groups have branded broadminded Malays who espouse a different brand of nationalist agenda, as puppets of non-Malays or traitors to their own race.

Dr Helen Ting from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Institute of Malaysian and International Studies raised concern at how Malaysia’s multicultural identity was losing its diversity over the decades and taking on a more “Malay-centric vision”.

“We see many comments from people, like ‘pendatang’,” she said, using the Malay word for immigrant that has now become derogatory in reference to the non-Bumiputera community.

The academic noted that similar revisionist comments were also made by educated individuals, including a former judge was reported saying recently that Malays had fought to free the country from the British, while the non-Malays who later joined the bid for independence were motivated by self-interests.

Another participant, Ahmad Fuad Rahmat from Projek Dialog, said the growing institutionalisation of Islam nationwide had led to greater curbs on the freedoms for the country biggest racial group.

“Greater emboldening of Shariah institutions means greater shackles on the liberties of Malay-Muslims,” Ahmad Fuad said.

He claimed the Islamic Development Department received the third-biggest budget in the Prime Minister’s Department in 2011, and voiced concern that there have been proposals to arm the Islamic authority’s officials.

“So the scope of Shariah is expanding beyond merely labelling ‘halal’ food. They’re so emboldened now,” the social activist said.

Siti Kassim, a legal advisor to the Orang Asli said the discriminations against non-Muslim aborigines in the peninsula had become more pronounced.

As example, she said chapels in the indigenous community have been demolished while mosques and surau were left alone.

“You can see why they feel that if they embrace Islam, they’re going to be special Orang Asli. If they don’t embrace Islam, they’re going to be neglected,” she said.

“There’s also been an Islamisation programme with material benefits implemented by Jakoa over the years. This programme is potentially damaging to their culture and rights as indigenous people,” said Siti, referring to the Orang Asli Development Department.

Another participant, KV Soon Vidayananda said Malaysians needed to ramp up discourse on how citizens were essentially being split into two camps: Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras at the most basic level, the identity cards that each person must carry at all times.

“We need to be bold to start, at the philosophical stage, to talk about the eradication of recognition of ethnicity in ID cards,” said the secretary of the coalition International Forum on Buddhist-Muslim Relations. -Malay Mail