In good faith, can we trust politicians to behave?

Neither Malaysia nor the US is directly led by clerics but there’s a very unhealthy intermingling of politics and religion: you often don’t know where one begins and the other ends.

The new year has started the way 2025 ended, in chaos, violence and with bad vibes about even more chaos and violence to come. One wonders whether fairness and decency can survive this onslaught of so much ill will from so many in the world.

Closer to home, Malaysia’s politics is roiled yet again by the usual suspects – in this case Umno, the venerable, or in some people’s minds, disgraced political party.

Umno is replaying some of their greatest hits, defending their even-more disgraced past leaders and being increasingly racial and chauvinistic. So far, I haven’t heard of any new charges of corruption against Umno members or leaders, but the year is still young.

But even as we tut-tut about racism in Malaysia, there are other places where racism is also rampant. Some of the places aren’t quite your usual suspects, especially given that for decades many of them have been scolding us on the evil of our racism.

I’m of course referring to the US, a nation currently gripped in high political fever, drunk on its power and reckless and feckless enough to destroy itself and take the rest of the world down with it.

It is no secret that the US has its own problems with race, but in the past its people and leaders seemed to at least try to live up to their self-proclaimed “self-evident” truth that all men are created equal, even if that truth for long didn’t include anyone not white and of European ancestry.

Many of us older ones grew up when the US thought it should lead the world into peace and prosperity after World War II, through the creation of the new world order and international organisations such as the United Nations and its many progeny.

To give credit where credit is due, much good has come out of this period of Pax Americana, but there’s a Mr Hyde side to this Dr Jekyll personality. The US also fomented many wars and propped up many governments – while also sometimes bringing down the old ones themselves.

The consequences of their actions continue to reverberate today, not least of which are the many acts that destabilised the Middle East.

Religion and racism

But the latest bout of racism, ostensibly directed towards the people from south of its borders as well as the many more recent non-European newcomers, is more unsettling.

It is now much more brazen, violent and seemingly part of an official doctrine on how the US wants to deal with the rest of the world.

Here’s where the racism in the US has similarities with our own local variety – in both cases, religion lies at the heart. In our case it’s the conservative ulamas that lead many of the Malays, while the US is driven by its own conservative Christian nationalist agenda.

These people are by no means the majority but they’re certainly a substantial minority. What they lack in numbers they make up in energy and blind faith – things which come easily and naturally when they think God is on their side.

To be fair neither Malaysia or the USA are directly led by clerics but there’s a very unhealthy intermingling of politics and religion: you often don’t know where one begins and the other ends.

A former US president, James Madison, once said religion and politics will both exist in greater purity the less they’re mixed together. That’s an absolute truth, though one that is ignored by just about everybody out there.

Malaysia faces a never-ending challenge to its plurality and diversity by the increasingly chauvinistic views among Malays who happily conflate race and religion, who believe that indeed Islam is Malay and Malay is Islam, however uncomfortable that sounds to those of us who believe no single people own the religion.

Many will quote our constitution that places Islam as the official religion of the federation as the basis for their extreme views, even if for them this is probably one of the very few instances where they have any care or respect for the constitution itself.

There are never-ending screeds about how the position of Islam is being challenged by non-Muslims, never-ending “evidence” of non-Muslim politicians trying to destroy the rights and position of Muslims.

Exploiting Malay insecurity

Perhaps we all see what we want to see. Personally, I don’t see anything that’s endangers Muslims and their right to profess their faith, apart from some exploitative and toxic Muslim politicians manipulating Malay fears and insecurity for political gains.

If you’re insecure enough, you’ll easily see ghosts where you’ve been told there are ghosts. In reality, it’s just politics as usual. Generations of previous politicians have tried this playbook – now we’re just witnessing the latest generation doing their own bit of provocation, hoping to shift the political levers of power to their advantage.

It’s ridiculous to think our faith can be shaken by the smallest of things. If it can, shouldn’t we hold those religious leaders responsible for their incompetence and failure in helping us build a strong faith?

God knows (and we do too) how much of our resources have been given to them from Malaysia’s public and private coffers for such miserable returns.

I personally believe the true test of a Muslim is whether we can be examples that open up other people’s hearts towards us. Given that, if we behave in ways that put others off Islam, that would have been a huge failure and betrayal, one that God surely wouldn’t be pleased with.

Instead, all we get are plenty of angry shouting that puts Islam as the sole property of the Malays, and that the Malays don’t owe it to anybody to act and behave in any ways that’ll make them examples of why more people should open their hearts to Islam.

That not enough Malay Muslims see that is sad and doesn’t portend well for the future. The insecurity that’s been with the Malays from the days of feudalism and colonisation is still a driving force in our motivation and action, and is easily exploited by others who see a scared populace to be an easily-led and manipulated one too.

Scary side of US politics

But insecurity doesn’t just affect us small or at most middling nations. It affects the biggest amongst them too. The US is increasingly being led down dark and dangerous paths by its own aggressive and paranoid Christian nationalists.

The current political belief that the US can exercise its power without regards to the “niceties” of international norms and treaties is something that has been an undercurrent of American exceptionalism and manifest destiny.

Here, too, if you think you have God on your side, how can you be wrong?

What’s really scary though is that among them are actually people with their finger on the nuclear button, and seem increasingly itchy to use that against those they don’t like.

Imagine wanting the world to end so that their kind will survive while others perish. And imagine them having the power and ability to make it happen.

Entropy in human affairs

But that’s the world we inhabit today. While the laws of physics say that disorder will just increase as time passes, it seems disorder also affects human affairs, especially politics.

I believe most people are reasonable, but they often underestimate the energy and will of the religious zealots. If there’s a time for us to reflect – and perhaps it’s not too late to make some new year resolutions on this – now is the time.

Don’t let our country, and our world, be hurt and damaged by people who think their own faith and beliefs give them the right to ride roughshod over the rest of us. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.