Do non-Muslims participate in the cabinet?

 

“Islam meletakkan mestilah ketua negara dan anggota kabinetnya yang berakidah Islam daripada bangsa yang paling berpengaruh. (Islam requires the head of the country and cabinet members to be Muslims from the most influential ethnic group).”

- PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, circa 2017

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s winding-up speech at the recent PAS muktamar was a knicker-twisting statement for some people.

Hadi said the same thing nearly a decade ago, as evidenced by the quote that opens this piece.

The PAS information chief at the time, Nasrudin Hassan, said this in defence of his boss’ speech.

“He was stressing the importance and need for Malay-Muslims to be the core of Malaysia’s political system and administration.”

It would be extremely easy to write a piece condemning such statements and Hadi (above), but this would ignore the underlying reality faced by non-Muslim Malaysians when it comes to participation in the political process and policymaking.

The reality is that from post-69, all cabinet decisions are defined by not spooking the Malays.

And since the non-Muslim power brokers have been handmaidens to the Malay political establishment, the argument could be made that there is already an unofficial “Malay/Muslim-only” cabinet in substance if not in form.

In position, but not in power

Academics and historians would no doubt point to a kind of golden age of non-Muslims/Malay political participation, and they would be correct.

This idea of the government and bureaucracy as totemic “Malay” institutions was not as politically ingrained as it is today.

S Samy Vellu (below), the former big cheese of MIC, in an interview with Malaysiakini back in the day, let loose on what he believed was the “curse” that afflicted BN.

He also admitted the component parties were not treated as equals, warned that some in the civil service were sabotaging policy and did not even consider the non-Malays as Malaysians, and seemed shocked that the majority community was flirting with equality.

Samy Vellu stressed that while the government is not discriminatory, those in the civil service are.

“Anything for other races, they don’t like to see it... Some of them don’t consider us (non-Malays) as Malaysians. They are the ones who brought BN down in this election,” he said, referring to the 2008 general election, when BN lost its two-thirds majority for the first time.

And the demonisation and neutering of the biggest non-Malay/Muslim political party reached its nadir when former prime minister Dr Mahathri Mohammad admitted that DAP veteran Lim Guan Eng had no power in the cabinet.

Mahathir even said that the Malays were getting far more than the Chinese community in terms of government allocations, but nothing could be said because it would upset the DAP base.

“So, how come he is said to be the one with the power? He had no power,” the former prime minister said.

While DAP was involved in discussions about the country’s economy and finances, Mahathir (above) added that the party had to consider the Malays too.

Convenient scapegoats

The Malay political establishment needs to project a fig leaf of inclusivity, but make no mistake, the non-Malay/Muslim community and their political leaders would always be the convenient whipping boys for the failures of the Malay establishment, as former Kedah menteri besar Muhkriz Mahathir said in an interview with Malaysiakini.

“Looking at Umno, when there were big issues which we could not address, we would talk about DAP, Chinese chauvinism, and how (DAP leader) Lim Kit Siang becoming prime minister would destroy Malaysia, that the Malays would disappear, and the mosques could no longer air the azan.

“I admit that I too have said such things in front of a 100 percent Malay audience. Thinking back, I feel guilty and a sense of regret,” said Mukhriz.

So now you know that whenever Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh (above) goes on a rampage, it is because Umno has done something and it needs a distraction.

Creeping Islamisation and DEI hires

Malaysia’s urban demographics and policy decisions have enabled relative economic success despite all the leakages, and this is why this country has been able to maintain the facade of being a “moderate” Islamic country.

In other words, there was political will that this country would not turn into just another failed Islamic state. This was always the centrist malarkey of Umno/BN.

But the plan is changing - not by the political class, but by the Islamisation process that was used by the political class to ensure continuity of power and inherited by an organisation like PAS, which has played the long game extremely well.

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST), responding to Hadi, said - “As the Constitution stands today, a theocratic Islamic state is not possible, as it would be an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution, which includes protection of fundamental rights of minorities.”

A couple of points need to be made here. First, the Constitution has always been interpreted in a way that justifies Malay supremacy, first by the Umno/BN regime and then by whatever coalition followed.

Second, PAS has made it clear by their diktats, slaying of sacred secular cows, and the coddling of the state that they believe that Islam is above the Malaysian Federal Constitution.

In criticising the DAP’s secular stance, this is what PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said: “Malaysia is not a secular country. If it was, why should DAP include ‘to fight for a secular country’ in its own manifesto?

“Islam is the official religion of the federation. Then there is the idea of Malaysian Malaysia. No Malay can accept the concept of equality.

“We accept the basic pillars in the formation of the country such as Islam being 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.”

If you chronicle the gradual erosion of non-Muslim power, what you will discover is how non-Muslim political operatives have slowly, over the decades, lost access to power when it comes to policymaking.

They are instead relegated to positions where their every move is predicated on not spooking the Malays. All these press announcements by non-Muslim ministers are merely a pantomime of policymaking.

You get all these non-Muslims in what everyone assumes are important nation-building portfolios, but they really are subservient to Malay uber alles principles and, of course, the machinations of the civil service.

Think of them as DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) hires.

Even when they are bringing in revenue to this country, they become targets for the champions of bangsa and agama.

A good example would be Tourism, Arts, and Culture Minister Tiong King Sing (below), who had to remind folks that he was not a Muslim.

Was it always like this? Ask any non-Muslim who was in government service, and they will tell you, especially the very old-timers, how things changed. How it evolved from we are all in this together to us against them.

I can’t bring myself to be outraged because Hadi, as usual, is just saying the quiet part aloud. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

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