A black joke is doing the rounds in Malaysia about the governing party and the fire bombing of several churches, mostly Protestant, in reaction to a court decision to allow the use of the word Allah for the Christian God by the country's Catholic Herald newspaper.
The United Malays National Organisation, the incarnation of ethnic Malay political ascendancy, is Malaysia's most successful institution, in power in one guise or another since independence in 1959. So, goes the joke, it can't have been Umno that organised the attacks, because it would have hit the right churches, and all the bombs would have gone off.
No one really thinks Umno had anything to do with the bombings, which have been mercifully inept. Many of the bombs have not exploded and, although one church was gutted, no one has been hurt. Najib Razak, prime minister and Umno leader, has denied accusations of his party's involvement made on some websites.
Most likely, the bombings are the work of a tiny and disorganised minority. But they have shocked Malaysians because the country's disparate ethnic groups (53 per cent Malay, 26 per cent Chinese, 8 per cent Indian and 12 per cent indigenous people) have rubbed along together peacefully since a series of murderous riots in 1969. Islam accounts for about 60 per cent of the population, including all the Malays, who are constitutionally required to be Muslims. About 35 per cent of the population, all non-Malays, are Buddhist, Christian or Hindu.
The roots of the conflict lie in an Umno decision three years ago when, as part of a licensing regime through which the government controls the mainstream media, but not the internet, the home minister barred the Herald from using the Arabic word Allah to describe the Christian God. The government contends this was to prevent confusion among Muslims. Critics say it had more to do with shoring up Umno's core vote by signalling its willingness to defend Malay political and religious rights.
In any event, the Herald went to court, and on New Year's eve won a High Court judgment that the ban was unconstitutional. The newspaper argued that the word had been used for decades by Malay-speaking indigenous Christians in Malaysian Borneo - now the states of Sabah and Sarawak - for whom there was no other suitable word. It had been used for centuries by Christians in largely Muslim countries such as Syria and Egypt.
After an angry reaction from some Muslims, the High Court stayed its own order, pending a hearing by the Supreme Court, which is expected to take heat out of the spat by backing the government. Yet that will not resolve the underlying issue, which is the sense of insecurity felt by many ethnic Malays in the face of economic reforms and political changes that are undermining their sense of natural dominance.
The reforms, intended to put more vigour into the slow-growing economy, have begun to dismantle a system of positive discrimination in favour of ethnic Malays, while sweeping opposition gains in the 2008 general election have raised the possibility of a government from which Umno might be excluded, depriving Malays of their institutionally dominant role.
The three-party opposition coalition of a multi-ethnic liberal party, a Chinese-based social democratic party and a mildly Islamist party, has largely backed the Herald, potentially increasing its attraction to both moderate Malays and other ethnic groups, and undermining the Malay community's sense of ethnic and religious solidarity.
Some liberals point to the High Court's initial willingness to challenge the government as a sign of welcome independence in the judiciary. Even optimists, though, have to accept that Malaysia has yet to face up to issues that will challenge Malay institutional dominance every bit as much as the current controversy. These include the status of Malay as the national language, and constitutions that prevent non-Malays becoming chief ministers of some states.
With some help from the Supreme Court, the conflict will probably fade. But Malaysia may face a long period of adjustment to a more prominent role for its minority ethnic and religious groups. With luck, Malaysians will continue to be able to joke about it.
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