ISLAM AND 2013 ELECTIONS IN MALAYSIA

Elections this year in Malaysia have had a decided effect on the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the ruling party in the Southeast Asian nation of 28 million.  Normally supportive of the UMNO, the defection of Malays of Chinese descent, who make up 25% of the population, and Muslim ethnic-Malays led to unanticipated losses.

PRIME MINISTER NAJIB RAZAK

Under political pressure, Prime Minister Najib Razak has taken a decidedly Islamic turn, hoping to win back solid support from ethnic Malays.  What had been considered a liberal-leaning government will now place emphasis on its Islamic base and will dispense with reforms that promised to make the country more open economically.  Now, however, more austere measures seem to be in store for Malays, as their government will devote more attention to diminishing the country's rising deficit.  Also expected is a government effort to amend the Malaysian constitution to make Sunni Islam the official religion of Malaysia.  Also reflective of religious tensions in Malaysia was a recent court ruling to the effect that only those affiliated with Islam may use the word "Allah," despite traditional use of the word by Malaysian Christians.

Internationally, Malaysia has been viewed as an example of "moderate Islam," and a Muslim nation which accorded a degree of toleration to the 35% of Malays not adhering  to the official religion, of which affiliation is mandatory for all ethnic Malays. The hard-line Muslim party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), has attained majority status in one of the Malaysian federated states, Kelantan, and bills itself as a force to be reckoned with in an Islamic push to make Shariah law and the Koran the official source for Malaysian law and governance.  Since the Malaysian constitution was originally based on British practices and presently only cases of a strictly religious nature are adjudicated in Shariah courts, any prospect of  the PAS gaining national power will naturally send chills down the spines of non-Muslims.

CYRISTAL MOSQUE

A question repeatedly asked in the Western world is:  Is it possible for Islam to govern moderately from the perspective of majority status?  Malaysia, seemingly, had enabled an answer in the positive to that question; however,  Malaysia will now undoubtedly occupy center stage for those concerned about the continuing resurgence of militant Islam.  Perhaps serving as a base for those in Malaysia wishing to support the rise of a totally Islamic state, the Shariah religious courts have carried on their deliberations with traditional Islamic views.  Men are entitled to 4 wives, and inheritance can be a thorny legal matter for Muslim women.  Furthermore, although the Malaysian constitution includes rights of freedom of assembly and expression, for all practical purposes these rights are under the thumb of police.

That the UMNO has been in power since 1957 and has not yet totally tilted toward extreme fundamentalist Islam may be taken as a challenge to Muslim hardliners. Will the UMNO's concessions to Islam forestall an Islamist takeover, with all of the usual attendant ills for non-Muslims?  Only time will tell if Malaysia will resist moving toward becoming a Southeast Asian version of Pakistan.