The UMNO-PAS conundrum and the politics of an Islamic state

UMNO AND PAS ARE ON ALL fours when it comes to Islamic criminal law, commonly but inaccurately known as 'hudud'. But they disagree on how. UMNO opposes the PAS plan, which it says is un-Islamic, and has its own version. PAS retaliates in kind. At the heart of this debate, conducted in a monosyllabic discourse in which there is no common ground, is that Malaysia's political debate has over the years shifted dramatically from a multiracial and multireligious society to a decidedly Islamic one. When UMNO and PAS do not even talk to each other over an Islamic state, and their discourses are for narrow political advantage, how could there be one between UMNO and PAS on the one hand and the non-Malay political parties and groups on the other? One frightening development in Malaysia today is that the non-Malay has no say on the matter. Any non-Malay questioning of the UMNO or PAS position on the Islamic state would be seen as questioning the role of Islam in national life. Even the National Front (BN) would not raise it once UMNO declared Malaysia to be an Islamic state. It is fair to assume the BN parties were not consulted, and its leaders would not dare to demand an explanation from its leader, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed.

Muslims in Malaysia once were subjected to Islamic personal law - marriage, divorce, inheritance and the like - but over the years the shariah came to be introduced, with the non-Malay and non-Muslim parties in BN not objecting to it. As UMNO's hold on to the Malay community became uncertain, it decided to challenge PAS in how Islam should be introduced in Malaysia. The Malay political direction changed irrevocably. The Malay constituency has been a conflict between the cultural Malay and the Islamic Malay. The cultural Malay believed in the dominance of the Malay, to whom Islam is an important element of his being; the Islamic Malay insisted on the removal of non-Islamic influences in his culture and work for the dominance of Islam. UMNO represented one and PAS the other. But UMNO could not hold on to its natural constituency, and now tries to woo it back by trying to outdo PAS in implementing Islam.

This is not spelt out. One must discern it from the odd statements from its leaders, which often raise more questions than answers. How the BN declared Malaysia an Islamic state is one example of that. In recent years, especially after 1998 and the demonisation of the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, UMNO has deserted its cultural constituency for Islam and finds, to its horror, that it does not gain more converts to its Islamic cause while the cultural Malay has no truck with it. It is caught in its own spin. And its leaders must make more statements about what it does not understand to sideline PAS which wants an Islamic state in Malaysia. Issues crop up now and then, and both got at them hammer and tongs. The latest is the PAS decision to impose Islamic criminal law punishments in the two states it controls - Kelantan and Trengganu. One UMNO lawyer has asked the Federal Court to determine if the Trengganu Syariah Criminal enactment (Hudud and Qisas) was unconstitutional. As the debate intensifies, the UMNO vice-president, Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin, who could, if all goes well, be Prime Minister in a few years, throws in an oar. "We do not propose hudud," he said on Friday (24 October 2003), only how PAS plans to implements it in Kelantan and Trengganu.

He implies UMNO and BN would implement hudud in the states it controls. Not because it wants to but so it can stay a step ahead of PAS for the support of the Malay community. The National Front (BN) government has declared - unconstitutionally - Malaysia to be an Islamic state. It would not discuss it in Parliament, but insists it can and could. With the non-Malay and non-Muslim communities nervous about PAS's plans for hudud in the two states it controls, the non-Malay parties in BN would not say what their plans are for hudud, and deflect questions about it by attacking PAS. In other words, UMNO and PAS accept the notion that Islamic law would in the end be the law of the land, that non-Malays and non-Muslims must accept it, but UMNO and BN would portray PAS as a rabid Islamic party which would be happy to deprive the non-Muslim and non-Malay of his rights in the theocratic state both BN and PAS pay lip service to. PAS on the other hand decries UMNO's efforts, which it insists is not Islamic. Since this debate is limited to the non-Muslim community, and the Malay community is severely divided - in UMNO and PAS - overf the form of Islam that should be in force in a multiracial, multireligious country, the UMNO and PAS stand involves a political position both would in time come to regret.

There is no common ground in the Islam UMNO and PAS project. Neither would accept that more than the notion of an Islamic state, the debate has subtly turned into which of them could protect Malay rights and future. Islam has become the vehicle for that. Which is why the debate within the Malay community, who while accepting the primacy of Islam in their lives, do not want to tethered with religious figures deciding how they should conduct their lives. This is the debate in the Middle Ages which in the end led to Martin Luther's Reformation in the 16th century in Germany. This primacy of the mullah is challenged even in PAS, and since it is headed by religious figures, their actions to counter the trend is seen by Malaysians as proof of a theocratic lurch. It is more than that. UMNO and PAS face the same internal convulsions over Islam: in UMNO a resentment for discarding the Malay cultural constituency, in PAS for allowing culture to intrude and welcoming as members those with a more cosmopolitan Islamic worldview.

PAS could pull this off for its Islamic credentials are more secure than UMNO's. Nothing frightens a Malay party than dissent from within. While PAS is generally assumed to be a theocratic party, its constitution makes no mention of that. It promises a government on sound Islamic principles. It accepts that this is difficult in a multiracial and multireligious society, and in talks with its officials - religious and non-religious - accept that the norms of a religious administration as Saudi Arabia could not work here. UMNO on the other hand has accepted it is an Islamic party and challenges PAS on its turf. It has a tough task ahead. In the 1950s, the socialist leaders in the Indian Congress Party felt that its socialist agenda did not have the importance it should, and formed their own socialist party. It made no headway. They could not convince the people that their idea of a socialist paradise differed from the Congress's. The same danger holds for UMNO. Whereas in India decisions like these would be after lengthy debate and thought, here it is for tactical advantage. UMNO could find itself unable to return to its cultural constituency and may not have much of an impact in the Islamic heartland. It could find that its traditional supporters could have moved to a non-Islamic multiracial but Malay-led political party like the National Justice Party (KeADILan), or to PAS.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my