Is Malaysia secular or Islamic?

 

Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng has provoked another round of debate, dissection and analysis of whether Malaysia is a secular state or an Islamic state.

PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man in his response to Lim said Malaysia is not a secular country and that PAS accepts the basic pillars in the formation of the country such as Islam as the official religion, Malay rulers’ position, Malay language as the official language, Malay culture as the national culture including the special privileges of the Malays.

Before I address this subject, I wish to examine whether a secular state is anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-royalty or anti-religion.

Malaysia can never rise up again and be a great world-class nation if we have our own definition of terms which is different from the rest of the world.

The free encyclopedia, Wikipedia, defines a “secular state” as “an idea pertaining to secularity, whereby a state is or purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion.

A secular state claims to treat all its citizens equally regardless of religion, and claims to avoid preferential treatment for a citizen based on their religious beliefs, affiliation or lack of either over those with other profiles”.

By its definition, a secular state is not anti-religion.

Wikipedia lists 43 countries in Africa, 34 countries in the Americas, 20 countries in Asia, 31 countries in Europe, 11 countries in Oceania and eight transcontinental countries as secular countries.

Out of these 147 countries, some 30 of them are member countries in the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) which shows that a secular state is not anti-Islam.

Our independence

Malaysia is truly unique for many reasons and chief among them is how we obtained our independence without any war. The founding fathers understood that there needed to be a compromise between the various races and the only way to achieve independence was to form a consensus on key principles.

The formative discussions leading up to Independence conducted by the Reid Commission and the Cobbold Commission prior to the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 state that:

(a) The (White Paper) Federation of Malaya Constitutional Proposals 1957 succinctly states that "there has been included in the proposed Federal Constitution a declaration that Islam is the religion of the Federation. This will in no way affect the present position of the Federation as a secular state...”

(b) The Cobbold Commission (1962) elucidates that "... we agreed that Islam should be the national religion for the Federation. We are satisfied that the proposal in no way jeopardises freedom of religion in the Federation, which in effect would be secular."

There were over a hundred meetings that took place involving various stakeholders before Malaysia achieved its independence. What is clear from the above is that the founding fathers intended for the country to be secular in spirit, although conceding that Islam and Malays hold special positions within the constitution.

What About the Rukun Negara? The preamble goes along the lines of “[...] memelihara satu cara hidup demokratik” and “[...] menjamin satu cara hidup yang liberal terhadap tradisi”.

Although there are words alluding to secularism such as ‘democracy’ and ‘liberal’, these two principles are inherently stand-alone and do not automatically qualify as being secular. Interestingly, the Rukun Negara makes no reference to Islam or any other religion per se.

The first line of the Rukun Negara states clearly that Malaysia as a country is not irreligious as “Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan” or belief in God discounts the very notion of secularism.

Democracy and liberalism

It can perhaps be summarised that the founding fathers intended for Malaysia to be governed along the lines of the principles of democracy and liberalism instead of rigid secularism. This takes into factor the various races and religions coming together to form one country.

Malaysia cannot claim that it is a secular nation simply because there are clear indications of religion playing a pivotal role in the governance of the country such as Islamic schools, Islamic courts and Islamic finance.

The special position of Islam also effectively removes any ‘neutrality’ in the government and contradicts the core tenets of secularism.

However, Malaysia can neither claim to be Islamic because the spirit and letter of the Federal Constitution go against several core tenets of the Islamic belief system, chief of it is the supremacy of the constitution and not the Quran.

The fact of the matter is, the civil courts outrank the syariah courts whenever conflicts arise to ensure uniformity and equality before the law, an inherently secular concept.

Although we are separated by a myriad of differences, we have and always will be united as Malaysians.

For Malaysia to truly move forward, we must first understand the nuances that gave this country its independence. Only by looking back can we bridge the divide and grow as one nation.

Is Malaysia secular or Islamic? Malaysia is neither. Malaysia is both. Malaysia is all of us. - Mkini

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LIM KIT SIANG, a DAP veteran, is the former Iskandar Puteri MP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.