In the cold winter of 2014, I stepped out of the Central Line tube, excited to meet friends in London I hadn’t seen in a while. But before I could greet them at their doorstep, my journey required me to take another mode of transportation: the bus.
My experiences back home with buses weren’t great: they were late and I had no way of telling when the next one would arrive. Not to mention, finding one near me would be a hassle in itself. But after a convenient two-minute walk, I was already at the bus stop.
I looked up to find an electronic board, which told me I needed to wait just a mere one minute for the next bus to arrive. It came. It was on time. “Efficient public transport with great last-mile connectivity? Wow, this sure is nice,” I told myself.
In the next four years of studying in the UK, I witnessed many “nice things” as I capitalised on cheap airfare and travelled across Europe. I was in awe of the bicycle lanes in Amsterdam, I was mesmerised by Germany’s recycling programme, and I listened in envy to a Malaysian residing in Finland, who told me tales of how wonderful the Finnish education system was for his children.
“Why can’t we have nice things back home?” I asked myself.
Well, upon coming back, I think I may have an answer to that question.
To build the conditions for society’s prosperity and growth requires the development of strong and robust institutions. Douglas North emphasised the importance of institutions, whilst Adam Smith stressed freedom, justice, liberty, security and equality, which he believed are responsible for socio-economic progress.
Simply put, the structural and moral scaffolding offered by effective institutions and justice are found to be instrumental to society’s growth and progress.
But how can we have robust institutions when we aren’t having the right conversations? How do we ensure justice, freedom and equality are in place when our politics is constantly barraged by racial and religious rhetorics?
Now don’t get me wrong, race and religion is part of our identity, especially in Malaysia. But if you’re going to place such importance on religion, can you at least champion its true values?
On Sept 14, 2019, a new pact was formed between political giants Umno and PAS. The pact, Muafakat Nasional, was mooted as an umbrella coalition that would finally champion Islamic values and unite the Ummah. This partnership was going to empower the Islamic agenda for the wellbeing of the country.
The Islamic and Malay narrative was further solidified when the final piece of the puzzle came into play through Langkah Sheraton - Bersatu.
Two Muslim-Malay parties working hand in hand with an Islamist Party - this was it. There will never be a more perfect time to demonstrate and implement effective Islamic governance based upon values of justice, freedom to speak out against injustice, and championing human rights.
But after more than a year in power, I fail to see any concrete progress on those fronts.
Allegations of double standards and corruption
Justice and fairness have always been strong pillars of Islamic governance, with numerous verses in the Quran stressing upon their importance.
However, since the start of the pandemic, the PN government has been hit with numerous allegations of double standards when it comes to implementation and adherence of their standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Fresh from campaigning in the Sabah elections, it was suddenly declared that politicians returning did not have to observe the 14 day quarantine, which arguably led to the rise in Covid-19 cases. On February 8th, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba announced that Cabinet Ministers returning from abroad on official visits were exempt from the mandatory 10-day quarantine. In March, Deputy Federal Territories Minister Edmund Santhara was allowed to undergo home quarantine instead of the mandatory hotel quarantine after a lengthy sojourn in New Zealand. All these instances sparked online rage.
When justice and fairness is not observed, faith in the ruling government erodes and is replaced with public distrust. Could this be the reason why people are more prone to flout the rules these days?
Along the vein of justice, what of the drop in the corruption index? With the announcement of the Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perception Index 2020, Malaysia slipped further down the ranks, dropping from 51st to 57th, behind Saudi Arabia, Mauritius and Italy (Malaysia rose from 61st to 51st under Pakatan Harapan rule).
Malaysia was shell shocked with the revelation of the halal meat cartel scandal in late 2020, whilst April 2021 saw the exposure of the "Project Cartel" scandal, believed to involve government projects worth RM3.8 billion.
More glaringly though, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, faces 47 charges involving criminal breach of trust, receiving bribes and money laundering revolving around tens of millions of ringgit linked to the charity Yayasan Akalbudi, of which he is a trustee. Does the leader of the Malay-Muslim party reflect Islamic values? And what does it say of the party itself?
The dwindling freedom to speak up and speak out
The freedom to speak up and speak out against injustice is another value that Islam encourages and rewards. In fact, one of the very premises of why the religion was sent down was to correct injustices that were widespread in Arabia at the time.
In the Malaysian context, the media plays an important and critical role in reporting corruption and highlighting injustices; from The Edge’s groundbreaking report on 1MDB to Al Jazeera’s documentary on the alleged mistreatment of migrants in Malaysia in 2020.
More recently, news portals including Malaysiakini covered the death of Ganapathy, allegedly to have happened whilst in police custody. In all instances, the reaction has been to clamp down on media freedom. Six Al Jazeera journalists were questioned over the migrant report, whilst two Malaysiakini journalists were called up by the police.
The government’s greatest weapon in stifling media freedom? The Sedition Act and The Communications and Multimedia Act, acts that have been used to detain and question countless journalists over the years. The very same acts are also being used to deter individuals from speaking out against the Perikatan Nasional government.
It is perhaps no wonder that Malaysia took the unwanted title of dropping the furthest in the 2021 World Press Freedom Index after falling 18 spots to number 119. This is in stark contrast under the Harapan rule, when Malaysia jumped 22 places.
By stifling media freedom and individuals’ rights to question, is the government effectively prohibiting the act of seeking the truth, whilst controlling what it deems as its own version of the truth? Would corruption and injustice not prosper in such an environment?
We need to do better with migrant workers and refugees
When Al Jazeera published its documentary on migrant workers on July 3, 2020, it was met with anger from the PN government. However, only months later, Human Resources Minister M Saravanan described a glovemaker’s worker living conditions as “modern slavery”.
Islam has always advocated for human rights; treating everyone with respect and as equals are amongst the basic teachings of Islam. So why did PAS and Umno hold massive protests against ratifying the The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd), a United Nations conventions committed to the elimination of racial discrimination.
And whilst our politicians rush to denounce and (rightfully) lambast Israel’s recent attacks on Gaza, our treatment of refugees at home does not ring a similar tone.
As Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention and classifies refugees as illegal immigrants, those awaiting registration are particularly vulnerable to detention and deportation. To add more salt to the wound, refugees lack the basic rights to work and access to public education. This has led to refugees being targeted in social media, with a flurry of petitions calling for them to be deported.
Has the government done anything to reduce the rising sentiments of xenophobia and racism? Or has it done the complete opposite and fanned the flames instead? Has the government shown empathy, inclusivity and willingness to accept just as the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did with Suhayb al-Rumi, a former Roman slave, or Bilal Ibn Rabah, a black slave?
Time to reflect
A year on and suddenly the pact that was propagated as a means to unite the ummah is in shambles. Umno and PAS no longer seem to be working together, while Umno is now in a political battle with Bersatu to claim dominance of the Malay-Muslim votes. What was once touted as a pact to unify the Ummah and bring forward the agenda of Islam, is now a mess of warring parties fighting for power in Putrajaya.
I strongly suggest leaders of Bersatu, PAS, and Umno to have a long hard look in the mirror and ask the question: Are we really going to go anywhere with all the religious rhetoric we bring to the table?
And perhaps even a harder pill to swallow: Is racial politics even Islamic in the first place? Shouldn’t we be taking the good values of Islam and apply them to a multi-racial, multi-racial Malaysia? Isn’t the famous verse in Surah Hujurat (49:13) meant to remove racial superiorities in religion?
As long as religious rhetoric dominates our politics and our conversations, rather than implementing its true values or discussing effective policies, we will never have strong institutions.
And without strong institutions, we will never be an exemplary country when it comes to efficient public transport, excellent recycling rates, exceptional education system and many other nice things.
Politics dominated by religious rhetoric without implementing its true values. That, as Taylor Swift sings in one of her songs: "is why we can’t have nice things". - Mkini
MUAZ MOHD is a Master’s graduate from the University of Manchester. He spent 20 years abroad before returning to Malaysia. Nothing annoys him more than politicians (mis)using religion for political gain.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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