What seems like a religious injunction is actually a piece of political censorship, writes David Jardine
A peculiar consequence of Malaysia’s major election upset in March has emerged, with serious implications for freedom of expression.
The opposition coalition, which won the populous central state of Selangor with a promise to sweep through the old National Front (Barisan Nasional) legislation and dispensation, has effected a ban on discussion the Islamic Hadhari philosophy of Federal Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi in mosques and other institutions.
Badawi adopted the Hadhari philosophy in 2005, with the aim of promoting ‘progressive’ Islam through the acquisition of knowledge and economic development.
However, since the opposition coalition PakatanRakyat includes the Malay Muslim party Parti Islam (PAS) and matters pertaining to Islam are its special brief, a commission of the state assembly under its chairmanship has decided that ‘Hadhari’ is a ‘materialist’ doctrine without spiritual content.
The peculiarity of this situation is that PAS’s partners are the mainly ethnic-Chinese, left-leaning Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the multi-racial Keadilan (Justice), whose national leader is the former federal deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, famously a recent political prisoner under his former boss ex-PM Mahathir Mohammad. Neither the DAP nor Keadilan represents Islamic voters per se.
By conceding to PAS on a matter which is both temporal and spiritual these two parties appear to have both given hostage to fortune and to be indulging in political opportunism as they seek to weaken PM Abdullah further.
The implications of this ban are that nobody in the state of Selangor may either discuss or propagate Hadhari. Nobody may debate its merits or de-merits. Nobody may circulate material relating to it, however academic.
In the sultanates of Malaysia, matters relating to Islamic doctrine are normally referred to the Sultan and the state’s Religious Affairs Department.
Will the more northerly states of Kedah and Perak, where PAS also has a newly enhanced say in the assemblies, follow suit?
