Torn between racism and hudud

MALAYSIA'S Independence, first as Malaya in August 1957 followed in September 1963 as Malaysia, was based on a Federal Constitution agreed by all the communities respecting all the ethnic groups and people of all religious beliefs to live in peace and harmony in our beloved nation.

Peace and harmony it was for the first decade. Then came the book The Malay Dilemma which brought fear amongst the Chinese community and later caused fear amongst the Selangor Malays when one seat separated the control of the state government.

When we look at the past knowing the present day system of political problem, the May 13th, 1969 political strife became the 1st 'rupture' in the peaceful racial harmony. Compromise was somewhat reached when the New Economic Policy (NEP) came in for implementation. With this many Chinese in urban areas joined opposition parties in protest of the NEP.

Though the NEP was a noble effort to help the Bumiputras, the seventies being the period of NEP implementation saw the start of cronyism benefitting only selected  Malay entrepreneurs who were given boosts in government mooted companies.

In my opinion, many could have done well if they were made to rise the hard way. Loading them even after failures, in my opinion, is the cause  of not reaching the targeted equity for the Malays!

However, some good progress was made in the education field, when the late 70s and 80s were great years affter  universities, colleges and Mara Science colleges were flooded with large and sometimes full intake of Malay students risking very often the quality of education.

Weaknesses in this crash programme were most obvious when many of the graduates were not able to be employed in the private sector, even in Bumiputra firms.

Therefore, most government departments were packed to the brim with one race.

With PAS coming into the limelight, the ruling government went on an Islamisation policy which brought fear to the non Muslims, with the ruling party entering the religious field. This further drove more non Muslims into the opposition.

Tough actions against Islamic leaders such as that  seen in the Memali incident further boosted Muslim support for PAS.

The racism problems of 70s have slowly turned in the late 80s into a religious dilemma to be faced by non Muslims. This came with the speedily passed amendments to the Federal Constitution creating two parallel courts giving much powers to the Syariah Courts through Article 121 (1A) in 1988. The non-Muslim MPs in the ruling party, claiming to be assured that it would not affect non Muslims, voted in favour to achieve the two thirds majority required to approve an amendment to the Federal Constitution. The non-Muslim MPs in the opposition  voted against the amendments.

PAS' victory in Kelantan and Terengganu prompted the party to campaign to implement the Hudud Laws in Kelantan in the early 90s. The MCCBCHST went all out to resist this move by meeting all political parties urging them not to support Hudud laws.

Our meeting with Kelantan Menteri Besar Tok Guru Nik Aziz was a landmark item. It was then that a government head was willing to discuss in detail on the proposed laws.

He even offered to consider any proposed laws for respective non-Muslim religions. The delegation was jointly led (in alphabetical order) by Ven Seet Kim Beng (Buddhist). Father Chan of Kelantan (Christian), Sri A.Vaithilingam (Hindus) and Sardar Joginder Singh (Sikhs).

Taoists were not in the Council then. It must be emphasized that we insisted that we would only recognise the existing civil laws for non-Muslims because it was common for all. We emphasised that that there should only be one set of criminal laws for the nation i.e. the present laws. Tok Guru agreed to consider our views.

Within a week he sent us a note that Hudud laws will not be imposed on non-Muslims if they were implemented.

However, the nation saw an open UMNO turmoil in late 90s when Anwar Ibrahim was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister. The birth of a new opposition party led by Anwar sympathisers saw a grand battle royal for the 1999 General Election.

The non-Muslim voters played a role, giving general support to the ruling party against the opposition mainly because they feared PAS.

The new Prime Minister's liberal views gained much support to the extent of receiving overwhelming support in the 2004 GE. He had some good dialogue with non-Muslim leaders And was generally agreeable on places of worship of non-Muslims and some other reforms.  

However, this show of support was short lived because the ruling party's former leaders were not comfortable with the reforms and liberal policy of the PM.

A new fear of Malays losing their rights was created and a new racist NGO named Perkasa was launched with a former PM as its patron. Lots of racist seditious statements were coughed out by Perkasa with the AG and the police just ignoring all reports against such seditious  actions. The non-Malays were pushed towards the opposition, and the opposition gained tremendous boost taking over Selangor, Penang, Kedah and Perak in addition to Kelantan in the 2008 GE. Sabah and Sarawak saved the ruling coalition.

The act of vengeance was enough to force the reformist PM out the following year.

Many wondered why non-Muslims favoured PAS of the opposition coalition to a race based party of the government in the 2013 GE! Perkasa's consistent racial actions, candidature of its 2 leaders in the GE by the ruling Party, biased police actions, dubious decisions of the judiciary in some cases drove vast majority of non- Malays to a 52% support to the opposition.

Once again the Borneo states saved the ruling party. An interesting point to note  is that a good proportion of urban Malay votes went to the opposition.

Hudud was brought as an issue but the racist statement by Perkasa and a former PM  overrode this, and it was noted that PAS had been liberal on issues like non-Islamic places of worship. For instance, the centre of Kota Bharu has new tall church and a 3 storey Hindu temple when their bids were rejected by the previous BN government.Kelantan also lifted the ban on cultural lion dances and cultural building structures.

The Prime Minister gave generous handouts and development grants to non Malay groups.But he failed to realise that the non-Malays need security and not donations. His silence on slanders against the non-Malays was the other factor.

Since GE 2013, Perkasa turned on the onslaught of religious issues. The target now is PAS. Some leaders of this party seem to panic thus going into defense by reverting to Hudud issue.

This party must realise that they will never have been in the national scene had it not been for non-Malay support. It will in the end meet the fate of losing the grip it has gained outside Kelantan.

In the meantime the non-Malay and non-Muslim political parties must refrain from accusing each other especially on religious issues. Lack of concentration on Article 121(1A) has made it possible to bring in new discriminatory laws.

In this country no political party can reach a national level success unless it can work together with all races and religions.

Our forefathers, including the original mover of Independence Dato Onn Jaffar and lovable Father of the Nation Tunku Abdul Rahman, showed us the path. The open and friendly approach of Tok Guru Nik Aziz also must be noted. It is most essential that the ruling and opposition parties follow and abide towards that direction.

Let common sense prevail!

By Datuk A Vaithilingam, FZ

Datuk A Vaithilingam is the former President of the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism.