The book that I am reading was found in a bargain bin and the title is “The Eternal Message of Muhammad”. I was reluctant to buy it because it was still not cheap despite the hefty discount. However, the benefit of hindsight tells me that my instinct was right.

Anyway, I am sharing the following passage with my fellow Malaysians because:

1. most Malaysian non-Muslims far too often have a misguided impression of what Islam is; and
2. the political stand of many Malaysian Muslims, especially in regard to racial equality, is contradictory to the faith they profess.

Here’s the passage:

“… Muslims in Africa and Asia are still confused and disturbed. They have known for a long time that they have a faith, a revealed Law, a society, and principles which call for a state that is neither secular not theocratic but possibly both, and that is neither autocratic nor demagogic. Muslim society is based on the freedom of the individual and the equality of everyone. Muslim society is in its essence a free, classless society. It is classless not on the basis of any economic theory but on the basis of its egalitarian laws and its refusal to recognize distinction and honor except through piety and submission to the revealed Law, whose fundamental principles are universal, humane, and democratic. Nothing that is preached by the East or West is new to the Muslims. Reason is essential in judging even their dogmas and matters of faith, just as independent reasoning is one of the four sources of their jurisprudence.”

I must say that the misguided impression of Islam that non-Muslim Malaysians have is actually quite understandable. We are like deep-sea fish that do know the meaning of salt water until we are out of it.

Whatever it is, all Malaysians ought to try harder to understand their own religion and those of others.

Salam.

The passages from The Eternal Message of Muhammad by Abd al-Rahman Azzam:

“In its modern form, nationalism is a new evil, and racism is worse still; and there is no cure for either except to uproot tens of millions from their present places of residence and confine them to specific geographic areas.”

The Message of Muhammad recognizes neither nationalism nor racism in their modern contexts; the fatherland of the Muslim admits no geographic delimitations—it coextends with the faith. In reality, it is a spiritual fatherland, just as religion is a spiritual matter.”

“Racism, or a fanatic attachment to tribe, nation, color, language, or culture, is rejected by the Message as a product of pre-Islamic idolatry. The prophet declares, “He is not of us who preaches bigotry.” Islam rejects every form of bigotry. All loyalties are directed to the word of God, and no relation above the spiritual is recognized.”

And now, the passage from Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl:

“From all this we may learn that there are two races of men in this world, but only these two—the “race” of the decent man and the “race” of the indecent man. Both are found everywhere; they penetrate into all groups of society. No group consists entirely of decent or indecent people. In this sense, no group is of “pure race”—and therefore one occasionally found a decent fellow among the camp guards.”

Both of these men stand on opposing sides of “racial and religious divides”. Both of these men are renowned in their own right. Yet, both of them affirms the irrelevance of race as we know it.

On the eve of Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, I humbly implore all of you, my fellow Malaysians, to discard the old life of living in racial boxes and start life anew living as Malaysians.

Salam.

For what it’s worth, I must say that that’s an ingenius and interesting idea from Dr. Chen. I wonder what Raja Nazrin thinks. (By the way, Raja Nazrin’s credentials are quite impressive. Check out the link to his entry in Wikipedia above.)

Anyway, I wanted to see how Dr. Chen would develop his argument after reading his analysis on the lack of national unity:

“This is happening because of the strains on unity by introducing a bumiputra policy in 1966, the NEP in 1970 and Islamic state during Dr Mahathir’s premiership.

To make matters worse, at the UMNO general assembly last year, the ultras rejected the concept of ‘bangsa malaysa’ and proposed the implementation of a ‘Malay agenda’ where Malays are conferred ‘ketuanan melayu’ status, while the rest are plain or ordinary Malaysians.

Then last month, the deputy prime minister heightened the unease amongst the people when he unilaterally announced that Malaysia was Islamic and not secular, claiming that the constitution did not state Malaysia was secular. This claim was contrary to the declaration by former prime ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn that the Malaysian constitution was secular.”

And, somewhat expectedly, Dr. Chen concluded by saying, “Let us start with the advice by Raja Nazrin to respect and adhere to the Constitution.”

Hmmm, at least Dr. Chen qualified his endorsement of Raja Nazrin’s advice about the constitution by indicating that it’s only a starting point to the solution. Nevertheless, I beg to differ with Dr. Chen’s endorsement and his earlier analysis about the cause of racial problems in this country. Indeed, the whole article was positioned as an issue of “lack of national unity”.

Here, we must note that this country is not even a nation yet, in the sense that the peoples of this geographical area of the world do not entirely and wholeheartedly “pledge allegiance” to her. This is quite apparent in the fact that many so-called Malaysians are more than willing to jump ship and migrate to another country as soon as “the pot gets to hot” here.

Of course, this also reflects, and may be a symptom of the lack of national unity. In any case, I disagree with the assertion that national unity deteriorated because of the bumiputera policy and the New Economic Policy.

From the beginning, as far back as Malaya and its formation, we had a problem of widespread and unquestioned racial discrimination. Even the Mat Sallehs who espoused human rights principles seemed to be quite comfortable with the rampant discrimination. I’m sure that all the British politicians and members of the Reid Commission were quite aware of the consequences of their policies and legal documents (especially our Federal Constitution) on Malaya’s racial relations and “national unity”.

Thus, with that kind of “national history”, especially the widely accepted racial discrimination – then and now – it becomes more than a matter of “political equality”. In terms of international law, I think Malaysia ought to be a international pariah. In terms of morality, I don’t see how any self-respecting and socially-aware person can accept such racial discrimination. In terms of religion and faith, I just can’t find any teachings in Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and/or Christianity, that condones our practice of racial discrimination.

Many of us in this country are hypocrites. Whilst we clap and cheer enthusiastically whenever we hear political rhetoric about national unity and harmony, yet we do not even bother to understand the culture and mindset of “other Malaysians”, much less make the effort to reach out to these “fellow Malaysians”. Do we really want to have “national unity and harmony”? Yes, we can continue to blame the government and the authorities for the racial problems that we face, but that attitude of ours is not going to bring Malaysia forward. Not even one single step forward.

One of the first steps that we must take on the road to national reconciliation, is to face the truth and admit our own ignorance on this whole issue of racial discrimination. Let’s talk openly about this. Don’t hide behind discussions about “national unity”. Let’s call the spade, “spade”. Yes, there is fear to confront the ugly and painful truth of the matter, but is that an acceptable justification for allowing racial discrimination to continue in this country of ours?

No matter what the justification, racial discrimination as a practice is always suspect. For it to be institutionalised unashamedly, with pride even, that’s unacceptable.

Here’s a brief discussion of equality (the twin principle of non-discrimination) by Judge Tanaka, in the context of apartheid:

“What are equal are to be treated equally and what are different are to be treated differently… [and] what is equal and what is different? … All human beings, notwithstanding their differences in their appearance and other minor points, are equal in their dignity as persons. Accordingly, for the point of view of human rights and fundamental freedoms they must be treated equally… The principle of equality does not mean absolute equality, but recognises relative equality, namely different treatment proportionate to concrete individual circumstances. Different treatment must not be given arbitrarily; it requires reasonableness, or must be in conformity with justice…”

So, in the context of Malaysia, are there any reasonable and justifiable circumstances that make racial discrimination necessary? All the usual justifications that we hear are just that. Justifications.

The history of every nation-state in the world will show that some groups of “citizens” were the first inhabitants of the land, and the “others” came later. Is historical origin a satisfactory reason or justification for racial discrimination?

No matter what answer we may try to come up with, in our guts and hearts, we know it’s wrong. It’s simply, morally and politically wrong to discriminate against anybody because they were born of parents (not of their own choosing) that are in the “wrong” ethnic group.

So, I have a problem with our Federal Constitution. It’s flawed, and we need to recognise that. Legally and poltically, we may not be able to do much about it now, but we must not glorify it as a panacea for our racial ills. The “social contract” that is often attributed to the Federal Constitution is yet another lie that puts us in our assigned places.

With all due respect to Dr. Chen and Raja Nazrin, I can only see the Federal Constitution as a temporary dam to stem the tide of racial and religious discontent. For a real long term solution, we need to do much more than just read the constitution and protect it.

For a real turnaround in Malaysia, I think more than political will is needed. The people and the so-called leaders must dig deep into their own spiritual reservoirs of faith and values for the resolve and conviction that is much needed to make a difference, not only at the national stage, but in their own private lives.

Basically, I agree that “when we go beyond labels such as ‘secular’ and ‘Islamic’ and connect with the substance of our three principal documents we will discover that there is a degree of congruence between the two positions.” And the three documents that Dr. Chandra is talking about are the Federal Constitution, the Rukunegara and Vision 2020.

Now, my question is, how do we move forward from this apparent impasse? It’s very obvious that the current hooha is created by the Deputy Prime Minister for political reasons. Indeed, it’s so idiotic for him to make such a statement that I won’t even go into the so-called debate.

What I’m interested in is what can we do to solve the real problems that all Malaysians are facing, irrespective of our race, religion or gender. For example, the Wanita MCA chief Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen, who is a Deputy Minister, has raised the issue of social problems. This is a very real problem faced by the community. Is MCA or Barisan Nasional going to do something about it, or are we happy to just get our names and photos published in the newspapers?

The range of problems that Malaysians face are so wide and varied that it’s sometimes even difficult to find a starting point. Politically, we have mono-ethnic parties that divide us to rule. Legally, we have a supreme law of the land with silly notions of race mixed up with religion. Socially, we have escalating crime rates and, worse still, our youth are being led astray by politicians and their lies.

Sadly, our value system was lost in the midst of all this talk about secularism and spirituality. The situation in Malaysia has become absurd. We have a Deputy Prime Minister that is somehow linked to a murder case, proudly going around announcing that Umno is the conscience of the Malays. We have a police force that is implicated in involvement with triad gangs. We had an anti-corruption agency Director who was allegedly corrupt.

And yet, this government pretends to have legitimacy, and the Rakyat plays along so that their convenient lifestyles are not disturbed. If anything, I find all this media control and realpoliticking to be very disturbing, indeed.

No doubt, this country has a unique history, both in terms of its racial composition and the development of Islam. Nevertheless, if we are serious about transcending this superficial debate and want to reconcile ourselves with the notion of Malaysia, we need to do some profound soul-searching… and perhaps ask, what we can do for our country.

Hence, after some reflection about my “apartheid posting”, I believe there is a better way forward for Malaysia. At least in terms of patching up racial relations between the different ethnic communities.

Actually, I started writing this posting yesterday but had to stop for lunch, meetings and so forth. Anyway, it’s just as well that I didn’t finish it yesterday because I just read Dr. Chandra Muzaffar’s comment in the NST this morning. Frankly, I am surprised Dr. Chandra still has so much confidence in the government and the Parliament.

He was suggesting all sorts of measures to ensure the independence and efficacy of the Institute of Ethnic Relations, which was proposed by the National Unity Advisory Panel. Moreover, research into ethnic relations was also suggested.

With all due respect to Dr. Chandra, if harmonious ethnic relations is what we want to achieve, then I very much doubt that the current administration under Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the “National Unity Squad” have got what it takes to make racial relations any better in this country.

Please let me be clear. I am not saying that the people in the Squad are not capable or do not have the interest of Malaysia at heart. Frankly, I do not know who half these people are, although I do note there is a former DAP politician in their midst. I am sure they are quite capable people, otherwise the government wouldn’t put them there. Indeed, even if the individuals cannot come up with good ideas, I am sure a 55-member panel can do the job.

However, my scepticism of Dr. Chandra’s suggestions stem from my belief that such projects come to naught if there is no politicial will on the part of the Umno rulers. And as far as I can see, these Umno rulers have no political motivation to share a nation with so-called visitors from foreign lands. Of course, we can debate about the origins of the Malays, Chinese and Indians, but that’s academic.

Now, the question is, what does it really take for us, as Malaysians, to bring the country forward, to achieve true nationhood, as one people, with one vision and one collective future?

The way I see it, on the one hand, the Malays resist sharing this country on an equal basis with the Others because they are afraid that they will lose out in the process, whatever “losing out” may mean to them. On the other hand, the Others (including the Chinese, the Indians, the Kadazan-Dusuns, the Ibans, the Temuan and all the other minority ethnic groups) either feel a lack of affinity to this country or are quite indignant about the whole unjust situation… and they feel quite helpless about it.

In simple terms, I would say that some sort of reconciliation needs to happen before we can move forward. And this sort of reconciliation must happen at the public and national level, not just between neighbours and acquaintances. A lot of major national issues that affect racial relations have not been addressed satisfactorily; e.g. the Federal Constitution and its flaws, the branding of Communists as Chinese, the tragic May 13 incident, the Chinese domination of the economy, the ugly Kampung Medan incident, the existence of mono-ethnic political parties and the Umno Keris episodes.

These issues must be addressed openly, not only in terms of a public discussion, but also approached with an open mind and open heart. Quite obviously, Malaysia will not be able to move forward in this area if we are not prepared to be bold and candid about how we feel, and acknowledge how everyone else is feeling, however justified the feeling may or may not be. The fact is, we all feel it.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the so-called National Unity Squad are prepared to do that. They seem to be more interested in highlighting the “achievements” of Malaysian racial relations for use as propaganda during Umno-BN’s election campaign. And even if they are willing to face the hard facts, will their political masters permit them to do the right thing?

If we are truly sincere and serious about improving racial relations in Malaysia, I propose we consider a royal commission with the mandate and confidence of the people. With the way things are in our political landscape, I wouldn’t even put my confidence in the current Parliament.

The members of this commission, although formally receiving their mandate from the King, should be nominated by the Rakyat, and appointed by the King in consultation with respectable world leaders like Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu and others who have experience in such reconciliatory processes. In other words, leave the local politicians, both the Umno-BN and opposition types, out of the whole thing.

It’s about time the Rakyat drive a process for their own good, and not let the politicians dictate the terms of our co-existence.