Is there a middle ground for Islam in Malaysia?

The Federal Court recently, by an overwhelming majority, struck down as unconstitutional several shariah law provisions passed by the Kelantan state government.

This arose out of a challenge against those laws by a Kelantanese Muslim mother-daughter pair.

Predictably this caused the proverbial stuff to hit the proverbial fan. It was the hottest national political topic leading up to the Chinese New Year (of the Dragon, no less), perhaps presaging the fire and brimstone that will follow it.

That fire and heat, as always, didn’t shed much illumination on many Malaysians such as myself. I’m no lawyer, nor an Islamic scholar, and certainly not a politician, and on top of that I don’t know much about the legal intricacies involved, and haven’t gotten any wiser from the hoo-ha either.

But I’m relieved. I’d hate to have states running amok enacting their own unconstitutional state laws. Otherwise, it’s conceivable all Muslim-majority states will have their own shariah laws, which like other state laws are likely to be inconsistent with other states’ laws, and likely to be inconsistent within themselves too. That can’t be good.

And it’s also presumably possible for non-Muslim majority jurisdictions, especially Sabah and Sarawak, to enact their own laws too, that they claim fit their own local needs and aspirations better than the federal ones.

If that happens, using a much-favoured local expression, Malaysia “koyak” lah like this. There is a precedent after all, albeit a peaceful one – Singapore leaving the federation in 1965 because of some political disagreements. But should such a breakup happen today, the balkanisation that ensues will bring great pain and strife.

No, we don’t need that.

A lot of condescending and threatening commentaries also came along with the judgment. This begs the question – is this stuff about laws and constitutions only for the “big” people to discuss and decide – you know, those wearing wigs in court or turbans in mosques or the politicians whose heads are too big and swollen to wear any headgear?

Hell no – we “small” people also must have a voice in this matter. Our society unfortunately has a problem with “small” people voicing out things. We’re constantly told the powerful, in whatever guise they come, have absolute power in this and that area which can’t be challenged. Islamic as well as secular considerations are also often used as the “big stick” to enforce this view.

That can’t be right. We obviously have to accept whatever decisions made by the due process, provided they’re made in good faith, until or unless they’re unmade through the same due process. Otherwise, we just can’t function as a society.

But that doesn’t mean we’ve to like such decisions no matter what. We should be able to have opinions on such decisions, and share them through proper forums and channels, and within bounds that we’re all aware of – laws on sedition or slander or treason, etc.

Merely having dissenting views doesn’t mean we reject those decisions. We’re just exercising our democratic right to be heard, and even to advocate for change. That by itself isn’t grounds for people to be silenced or intimidated.

Even the best of people occasionally get things wrong and need to be called out or even sanctioned. Hence calling people out when things go wrong and accepting some constraints on our rights and privileges in the name of coexisting peacefully as a society is not a big deal.

Here, the highest court in the land has made a decision that affirms the superiority of the federal constitution and brings us back closer to the founding ideals of the country. As an ordinary citizen, I can only hope they’ve been made in line with the niceties, and certainly the technicalities, of the due process.

But on something as political and emotional as this – often involving “God’s laws” no less according to their advocates, as well as the ever-present hidden hands of Malaysian politics, it does get very difficult to separate facts from opinions, reality from political theatre and reason from emotion.

But I personally believe people saying their laws are God’s laws, whilst they’re free to have such an opinion, shouldn’t be allowed to have rights not provided for by the Federal Constitution. God’s laws already exist and don’t need a bunch of politicians to enact them.

Muslims are very clear on what God’s commandments are. Politicising them does absolutely nothing to make us better Muslims, except to make some Muslims – the political ones – more powerful than others whilst making non-Muslims fearful of Muslims and hence of Islam.

Malay politics has become almost dysfunctional because of this pivot into exclusively harping on race and religion. Our choices now seem limited to either the more “secular” but corrupt politicians, or the more “religious”, and likely less corrupt, but also more bigoted ones.

We’ve seen how so many of these politicians have failed to fix the real problems facing the Malays today. When you’re the 3Cs – corrupt (self-explanatory), clueless (ditto), and contemptible (for using threats and fear about race and religion as political tools), spreading confusion and hate is all you can do.

The middle ground, one where you care about your faith as well as care about your nation and fellow citizens, is crumbling and this seems to serve many people just fine. But this worries me, as I for one don’t equate the lurch towards political Islam to be the same as us Malays becoming better Muslims.

I recently met a very well-known and distinguished Chinese couple, both past the half-century mark. The man had spent decades working in high positions with well-known global corporations all over the world, whilst the wife is a highly intelligent and literate writer. Both are semi-retired but are still doing a great job for the community in their own ways.

I was surprised to find out later they are both Muslims. There was nothing outwardly to indicate such – certainly not in their names or clothing or mannerisms. Given these are people who chose to embrace Islam and weren’t just born into it, they’re indeed people whom the other Muslims should admire and respect.

But here’s the kicker – the man said that had he not been overseas and had remained in Malaysia instead, he never would’ve embraced Islam based on what he sees here.

Ouch…that hurts, though perhaps only to a constantly diminishing number of us in the “middle ground”. For many other Muslims, who’ve cemented in their mind that Malay is Islam – Islam is Malay, at best they’d see this couple as a “win” for the Malay/Muslims, and at worse as lower class, non-original and hence less “true” Muslims.

I can only hope the recent Federal Court judgment is a sign perhaps the middle ground has not been totally worn away from Malaysia’s political landscape yet, and that fairness, justice and common sense still prevail. - FMT

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