HOW FAR IS THE RACIAL/POLITICAL DIVIDE ACTUALLY A RELIGIOUS DIVIDE?

So all these vices, ‘vice promoting’ events, and places of vices, must be banned. Those who resist are enemies of Islam and hence enemies of the Malays as well. Malaysia is divided into two: between those who uphold Islam and those who ‘insult’ Islam. And when we divide Malaysia between Muslims and those perceived as anti-Islam we also divide Malaysia into Malays and those seen as anti-Malays.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

When they look at the race problem that is plaguing the country, the older generation would look at what it used to be back in the 1950s and 1960s, what we call ‘zaman Merdeka’ or the Merdeka era, and would compare it with the Malaysia of today, 60 years on.

Those of us who lived or grew up in that era would understand what these people mean. Malaysia of 60 years ago and the Malaysia of today seem like two different countries.

The younger generation that just look at Malaysia of the post-Reformasi days, meaning 1998/1999, or post-2008 Malaysia, would not be able to see the glaring difference between the ‘two Malaysias’ that we are referring to. They do not have a basis for comparing the ‘two Malaysias’.

Of course, we hear or read about what the older generation have to say regarding Malaysia of the Merdeka era. But hearing about it is never the same as living it. It is like when my older generation tells us stories about the Japanese Occupation of Malaya or the turmoil in the two weeks after the Japanese surrender. You can only appreciate what happened if you were there and personally suffered the agony of those times.

The question is why was Malaysia or Malaya of 60 years ago different from Malaysia of today? What happened over those 60 years that transformed the country into what it is today, a country divided by race? I would sum it up to two reasons: religion and politics.

Religion, meaning in this particular case Islam, was never really a ‘big thing’ in the Merdeka era, if I may be permitted to describe it so. If you were religious you were religious. If you were not you were not. No one really cared what you did and everyone lived and let lived and basically did not poke their noses into other peoples’ business.

For example, I first went to Terengganu in 1972 (travelling to and fro from KL) and settled down there in 1974. At that time, we could drink beer openly at the many bars in town, and played gin rummy or poker on weekends, and danced with the ‘taxi girls’ in the only two nightclubs in Kuala Terengganu (plus those in Kota Bharu as well).

No one arrested us. No one passed judgement on us. They did not even comment about the empty beer bottles overflowing from our dustbins. We did our thing and they did their thing. Everyone was free to live the life that they wanted to live. And we did not feel uncomfortable as those in skullcaps passed our house on the way to the mosque while we drank our beer and gambled until dawn in full view of our neighbours.

I loved Terengganu so much I decided to stop shuttling up and down and became a resident of that state. On many a night we would sit in the bar with police officers from the OCPD down to the Inspectors and buy each other a beer or gin. We would also go over to the police officers’ mess to drink and partake in the Thursday night (when the nightclubs are closed) ‘blue movie’ sessions (movies confiscated as ‘evidence’ and for our viewing pleasure before the case comes up for trial).

Hell, Terengganu and Kelantan were the states to be in during the 1960s and 1970s. We had so much fun there and even when we crossed over to Golok all we needed to do was to inform the police officers in Terengganu or Kelantan and their Thai counterparts would wait at the border and escort us into Thailand as VIPs, complete with police escorts and female ‘bodyguards’.

But then in the late-1970s something happened. Anwar Ibrahim and his Islamic youth movement, ABIM, began touring the East Coast to preach the word of Islam. In 1979, we had the Iranian Islamic Revolution and this compounded the problem. Even I discarded my wayward ways and became a fundamentalist Muslim complete with Arab dressing and all.

Then we were told that Islam is not a personal religion between you and God. Islam is an adeen or way of life. We must look at Islam as not just a set of beliefs and rituals but as political Islam. Islam is politics and there is no two ways about it. Prophet Muhammad was a not a religious preacher like Jesus but was a military commander who set up an Islamic State with the Qur’an as the Constitution.

Eventually, it became a them-and-us situation. Either you are with us or you are against us. If you are not a friend of Islam then you are an enemy of Islam. And since Islam is very much synonymous with Malay (you need to be a Muslim to be a Malay), this invariably split us along racial lines as well.

So now no longer can your race, religion and politics be separated. Race, religion and politics come as a package. To be Malay you must also be Muslim and subscribe to Malay-Islam politics. So, if we divide along religious lines, we must also divide along racial and political lines.

The big change was supposed to have come in 1981. That was the year Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad took over as Prime Minister. And Dr Mahathir was perceived as the enemy of Islam. In fact, many of his statements in the early days were viewed as heretical and an insult to Islam.

Anwar Ibrahim, according to the late Ustaz Fadzil Noor’s plan, which he told me when we met in Mekah in 1982, was for Anwar to take over the Presidency of PAS. Then Islamic politics would reach its height and Umno would be ousted from power.

The great shock was when Anwar decided to join Umno instead. Nevertheless, the great Islamic divide had already happened and there was no turning back the clock. And with the Islamic divide also came the racial divide and, of course, the political divide.

Five years later PAS was ousted from Kelantan and the Malay divide became permanent.

Today, we are seeing so many problems in Malaysia. The Bible issue, the Allah word issue, the conversion issue, the body-snatching issue, the Muslim child-kidnapping issue, the evangelism issue, the beer issue, the dog issue, etc., are just some of the many problems. Then we have PERKASA, ISMA and many more that continue to divide Malaysians.

Some are religious and some are racial in nature. Some, in fact, are political. But they are all really about Islam because, as I said, race, religion and politics come as a package and cannot be separated.

You cannot be a Malay-Muslim like in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s and still play poker, drink beer, keep dogs and dance with cabaret girls in the nightclubs. (And surprisingly these types of Malays were not corrupt or took bribes). Today, you need to reject all these un-Islamic activities and vices if you want to be a Malay-Muslim.

So all these vices, ‘vice promoting’ events, and places of vices, must be banned. Those who resist are enemies of Islam and hence enemies of the Malays as well. Malaysia is divided into two: between those who uphold Islam and those who ‘insult’ Islam. And when we divide Malaysia between Muslims and those perceived as anti-Islam we also divide Malaysia into Malays and those seen as anti-Malays.

That is the real crux of the problem. All those anti- or pro-NEP rhetoric or the Chinese school debate is not the problem. That is the by-product of the problem. We discuss those things because we are divided and not that those things divide us.