By Debra Chong - The Malaysian Insider
PETALING JAYA, Feb 23 — The recent signs of religious conflict are just some manifestations of a deeper problem within the Malaysian psyche today, says Dr Chandra Muzaffar.
The root of the problem lies in “the way people see themselves and see the other”, said the Universiti Sains Malaysia’s (USM) professor in global studies, who is also heads Yayasan 1 Malaysia (Y1M).
“In the last few years, the issues that have dominated Malaysian society concerned religion,” the academic told The Malaysian Insider in a recent interview.
And when religious consciousness becomes more pronounced, it leads to tensions among the different communities, he added.
The existing tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims over the use of the word “Allah” is but one example of the kind of conflict going on in Malaysia right now, Chandra noted.
The author of books such as “Rights, Religion and Reform”, “Religion and Governance” and “Islamic Resurgence in Malaysia”, said that the real issue raised in court over the use of the word “Allah” concerned the power of the Ministry of Home Affairs in stopping someone from publishing something on the basis that it could threaten national security.
Chandra said that the Malay-Muslim community feared the use of Allah would jeopardise their faith.
He explained that while Christians and Muslims share a history in their belief that there exists only one God, the difference lies in their definition of the concept of unity.
Christians subscribe to the belief that the one God can be separated into three aspects, which they call the Trinity, but Muslims do not.
“Allah is central to their belief. They cannot understand why the word ‘Tuhan’ cannot be used. Their fear is that when others use the term Allah, it will lead to misunderstanding among Muslims and tensions,” he said.
“To dismiss these people as fanatics is superficial,” he warned.
“Religion is a social marker. If we don’t get people to understand each other, because of the lack of understanding and religious intolerance, people will become more obsessed,” said Chandra, who also heads the board of trustees of Y1M, an independent foundation promoting national unity.
“We need a mechanism [to resolve the differences]. It’s very urgent. We must get the state involved. If not, they won’t feel a sense of responsibility, which is something very important for the future of the country,” he stressed.
Founded last July, the Y1M has been actively pushing the federal government to set up a national roundtable to be chaired by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself and with the authority to resolve religious disputes.
But its proposed National Inter-faith Council for Religious Harmony was shot down by the second-most senior Cabinet member, the deputy prime minister.
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was reported to have said there was no urgent need for an inter-faith council and that disputes could be resolved as they arise.
“It’s a pity the deputy prime minister came out with that statement,” said a visibly disappointed Chandra.
He related that Muhyiddin had indicated his support when the Cabinet was first briefed about the council.
Chandra had confidently told The Malaysian Insider previously that the council would be set up and ready to go by April this year.
Confronted by Muhyiddin’s latest statement, the don admitted it was a setback but stressed the foundation would continue to pressure the government to establish the council.
“I don’t know if we can talk in terms of a specific time frame, but I don’t think it’s an idea we should abandon just because of the deputy prime minister.
“I think it’s a question of trying to persuade. It’s the most sensible idea,” he noted that some Muslim groups, such as the formerly radical Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim) had openly vowed support for the council.
“We can’t run away from them,” Chandra said, referring to the rising number of inter-religious disputes over conversions, marriages and burial rights.
“I feel we are sweeping things under the carpet. We must decide. We must provide some sort of mechanism to resolve the disputes. Right now, there is none,” he stated.
The “Allah” case, he said, would not have become an issue if the parties had sent out a clear message to the public.
“There is no problem if the use of the word is restricted... if Christians use it within churches and if they are praying and citing passages from the Bible.
“What we should be concerned about is the misuse of the term in the public domain. For example, a group of Christians having a public meeting open to everyone and they say Jesus is the son of Allah. If people of other faiths hear it, it could create misunderstandings,” he said.
A long-time social activist, Chandra explained that discussions between non-governmental organisations and the federal government have been going on over the years with many solutions proposed, but never succeeded in being cast into law or policy.
“For example, a proposal for the deceased. I was part of a meeting with religious leaders and groups like the Bar Council with the Attorney General in 2005. But not everyone agreed.
“The position many of us took was when a person converts, there should be proper documentation to state that he or she is now a Muslim. And that document of his or her conversion should be made known to the family. Make it obligatory to inform [the family].
“In Islam, when one converts, it should be with full knowledge of everyone and there’s documentary proof to avoid problems,” Chandra said.
Asked why the idea never took off, Chandra said some Islamic religious leaders who wielded high influence had strongly opposed the suggestions.
He said it showed that society must continue to pile pressure on the government to “persuade” them to change their mindset and attitude.
Chandra stressed it can be done, and pointed to the policy changes over human rights, women’s rights and environmental protection which are given more attention now compared to when activists first mooted them in 1970s.
“Human rights; twenty to 30 years ago, even the word was anathema. Now, we’ve got Suhakam. Women’s rights. Back then, equal pay for equal work was something that did not exist. Now, the three most important financial institutions in the country — Bank Negara, the Securities Commission and Income Tax —are headed by women,” he said.
He added that the prime minister was the key to making it all happen and highlighted that his suggested inter-religious council stressed the government’s No 1 must be the head.
The council must also be able to investigate religious allegations and carry out punitive action to make it all work.
Chandra recounted a past incident involving a mufti — “I won’t say his name” — who had spread baseless rumours that a local church had converted 300,000 Muslims to Christianity, leading to uproar among certain people within the Malay-Muslim community.
“We need enforcement if such things like this happen. People who spread baseless allegations must take responsibility. They must be made accountable for their words and deeds,” he said.
“What’s more important is to educate people on what’s happening so they won’t be taken in by such baseless allegations,” he said, adding that today’s communication network was wider, moved faster and allowed anonymity, making it harder to control.
“In the case of cyber media, one can be totally anonymous and create stories and people will believe you,” he said, before heaving a sigh, “I don’t know why Malaysians get duped so easily.”
Despite the desecration of places of worship, Chandra remained upbeat that Malaysians would overcome the fears of an “ethnic quake”.
“No Malaysian wants trouble. Malaysians don’t want an ethnic quake,” he said, drawing an analogy to the Japanese dread of earthquakes.
“I think it’s remarkable, the way Malaysians have responded, but it’s not been highlighted by the media.
“Malaysians are generally well-behaved,” he added.
“The torching of churches and the wild boar heads in mosques... things like that in other countries can lead to riots but that didn’t happen in Malaysia,” Chandra marked how ordinary citizens of diverse faiths had swiftly stepped to the fore in the aftermath of the attacks to lower the rising mercury, by giving out flowers bearing peace messages to passers-by on the street.
Religion is not the only social marker and Malaysians cannot generalise when talking about the country’s maturity level, Chandra said.
He said Malaysia has evolved but the changes are differently paced in different areas.
The economic gap has yet to be properly addressed because the New Economic Policy (NEP) was originally an affirmative action plan to help the poor regardless of their racial background.
But on the bright side, Malaysians have embraced and celebrated their cultural differences over the years, Chandra said.
“Food has, by and large, crossed boundaries. You see Malays eating with chopsticks and eating foods associated with Chinese and Indians and vice versa.”
Chandra related that those habits are taken for granted now but had caused an uproar in the past.
He recounted how Tan Sri Khir Johari, who had been a minister from the start of the first Cabinet under Tunku Abdul Rahman, had nearly lost the Malay vote in the 1969 general elections over Chinese New Year greeting cards he had sent out showing him and his Chinese wife in traditional Chinese costume.
“Pictures of Tunku eating with chopsticks were also made into an issue,” the history buff claimed.
He added that in the 1970s, there was a big debate in regards to the traditional Chinese lion dance. Some quarters insisted, in all seriousness, that the lion head should be replaced with a tiger head because the tiger was our national symbol.
Chandra stated that the biggest challenge facing Malaysia today is “how to make Malays and non-Malays understand one another on a deep, psychological level”.
He noted that the major issues that have cropped up — the open name-calling perpetrated by Umno leaders like Nasir Safar and Ahmad Ismail, and behind closed doors, such as the Biro Tata Negara (BTN) programmes — are “manifestations of something much deeper within the psyche”.
“People carry historical memories. It is a constant battle to get them to see both sides,” Chandra explained.
He said Malaysian society is unique among its regional neighbours because it is not homogenous.
“In Vietnam, Vietnamese nationalism gave birth to a Vietnamese nation; in the Philippines, Filipino nationalism gave birth to a Filipino nation.
“In Malaysia, Malay nationalism did not give birth to a Malay nation,” he said.
“It gave birth to a multi-ethnic nation.”
In his view, Malaysia’s course would have been charted much differently if the Malay majority had been given a say in the formation of the country back then, instead of it being decided by the Malay elite.
Chandra noted that in the 1950s the country’s population then was about seven million and when the Malay elite agreed to open up citizenship to other races, suddenly there was an influx of non-Malays who were accorded the same rights of the Malays.
“The Malay elite, people like Tunku and Tun Razak, they were the aristocrats. Their status would not be jeopardised by welcoming non-Malays like the Chinese and Indians.
“At that time, the middle-class, which is your professionals like doctors and engineers, were mostly Chinese and Indian. If there were more Malay professionals then, the Malays would not have been so accommodating to welcome non-Malays because they would feel threatened.
“But now, many Malays have entered the middle-class and they feel threatened and have given rise to manifestations like BTN,” Chandra told The Malaysian Insider.
“A lot of times, when we talk about justice, we see justice from our ethnic position and not from the other perspective. The challenge is to understand each other,” he said.
“Things like these need to be handled quickly. The solution is to speak up. But the ones who speak up have to get their facts right,” he added.
Chandra said his foundation is committed to that cause.
Among the projects undertaken by the Y1M are the “1 Malaysia story” which publishes essays on national unity on its website and “My Kasih”, a joint venture with a citizen group network which helps the poor to buy groceries at a discounted price from supermarkets using their MyKad.
The Y1M has this year submitted two more proposals to the federal government for support.
The first is a joint venture with Khidmat Negara to set up an alumni association for former participants of the national service programme to enable them to continue community service with projects like gotong-royong.
The other, which Chandra sees as having the biggest impact on the country’s future, is to “strengthen the idea of national schools as schools of choice”.
He stressed on the need for the government to fully understand that schools are important instruments towards national unity but the trend for the past few years has seen non-Malays leaving the Bahasa Malaysia medium schools for vernacular education, which worries him because it lowers the opportunity for children from different ethnic backgrounds to socialise with each other.
As a result, ignorance about cultural and religious practices is established from an early stage, and this leads to insensitive statements and attitudes.
“We must make our national schools work so over the next 20, 30 years, the majority of parents will send their children to national schools where Bahasa is the medium of instruction but where English and Chinese and Tamil can be studied within the school curriculum and not after school hours,” Chandra said.
He declined to disclose further details of the idea but said the proposal paper has been handed in to the prime minister for consideration.
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