This series by Dennis is well written & in my opinion balanced, thoughtful and forward looking
I would however politely suggest suggest that Malaysia sorry state is not due primarily to politics but due to the perculiar interaction of race , religion and nationalism aka. Malay pride “ketuanan Melayu“ etc etc
For even in a flawed democracy like Malaysia’s, a county’s politics and its politicians can’t exist unless their message appeals to and has support from the overwhelming majority.
For this majority it have been clear for the past 30years that they wish to move to a more radical, “pure” Middle Eastern Islam..
As such it is sad but tell ironic, yet only natural & inevitable that democratic Malaysia is now using it’s democratic process to become an Islamic state.
A process that is well on its way and has almost certainly reached the point of no return.
Sadly . Very sadly there is much truth to what is written here. Malaysia is well on its way to become a backward Islamic state (a forward looking one is a contradiction that denies reality). Many cannot see this as the prospect is too frightening &/or to far fetched. Many able to see this coming are resigned to the fact they can’t or won’t migrate and hence selective choose to ignore all the signs around them. Others have already gotten out of the country or made plans to do so.
Everything in this article contradicts what I see on the ground in KL. Actual city life seems to function beyond the political fray because politics is concerned with job growth for Bumiputera, and natural resource revenues are sufficient to sustain Malay political stability. So far, that dynamic--even with corruption--has allowed relative freedom for the dynamic private sector in KL and surrounding areas.
We should remember how modern & forward looking Iran was under Reza Palani. Then the Islamist took control and it’s a more or less - actually MORE, a failed state . Malaysia won’t be like Iran- but even 1/3 as bad is bad enough. Look at Kelantan & Trengganu - that is Malaysia’s future under pass: backward & poor… more mosque than hospitals & schools. That’s the “new” Malaysia.
I don't think there is any doubt -- whatsoever -- that Anwar Ibrahim's "reformasi" was a red herring. It doesn't take an Einstein to see through Anwar and his shenanigans. Soon as Mahathir Mohamad coopted him from ABIM, the Islamist youth movement, he'd become hungrier and greedier for power. When Mahathir sacked him as his deputy and as finance minister, Anwar became a desperado. His reformasi call was more than public relations: it was his plea to all "Malaysians" -- whatever and whoever they may be, however defined in racist Malaysia's political economy -- to support him in regime change. He tried that again and again with his numbers game, plucking numbers from thin air to show he had support for regime change in Selangor state when in fact he didn't. Not one jot. Perhaps he thought he'd learnt from his mentor Mahathir the art of lying, the art of subterfuge. Maybe he did but it had zero effect -- until Najib Razak showed his hands at criminality. Voters tired of the party of liars, crooks and even of murder, UMNO, tosses it out but, in all their idiocy, voted, of all the political goons, Mahathir, without whom Pakatan Rakyat wouldn't have seen the light of political day. But it was all too late: the rot of Malaysia's corrupt politics, the stench of racism by -- let's get real -- all races in Malaysia, not just by the Malays -- was to grow even stronger with Mahathir at the helm again, playing the Malay socialist, and Anwar Ibrahim, playing the Malay liberal, could only clash. Clash they did when Mahathir shoved Anwar aside yet again from becoming prime minister. The result: Anwar became even more desperate. But, quietly -- very quietly -- he dropped his Malay liberal sarong, once he became prime minister -- by accident, not by calling -- and, knowing he would only survive politically if he could rally Malay kampong plebs as much as urban Malays, behind his call for a new reformasi -- one that kept Islam as the rock hard place that no non-Malays could challenge for its primacy , and his anti-corruption drive that changed to a lower gear, afraid to get the really big crooks, most of whom are Malays (not discounting Chinese and Indian corrupt crooks either) and focusing on the ikan bilis fry. Why? He can't afford to be seen as turning against the Malays whilst not going after corrupt big-time Chinese and Indian crooks.
Linked to that is of course Islam, which has always played the lining of the stomach to politics and the economy in Malaysia and needless to say, the politics of dead-hopeless corruption that is Malaysia. If there are a few things Malaysia is world famous for, apart from its food, it is that Malaysia is one of the most hideously corrupt and racist countries with a typical third world mentality, and maybe even fourth world (never mind the glass skyscrapers) and its millions of universities that churn out like sausage-making factories unemployable graduates. Like it or not Malaysia is an intellectually sterile joint where patronage politics, ignorance, even arrogance, and a feudalistic system of governance over its politics, economy and society reign so majestically.
What's the big deal about "political Islam" and what is it supposed to be? At what point in world history has religion -- any damn religion -- not been infused by politics from its very man-made start -- in the dark ages? Islam and politics were one and the same throughout Malaysia's politics from yesteryear. It's not an invention of the late 20th century nor of late capitalist development in Malaysia. Just because writers do not want to be pulled up by Islamic authorities that are funded by the Malay state, that thrive in the sanctuary of the "king" and the "sultans", they go soft as jello by naming it political Islam as if it has nothing to do with the early weaponization of Islam as a political tool and a political vehicle to power and wealth accumulation. Knee-weak coyness like this suggests why Anwar, like all his predecessors, don't dare taking on PAS at its dangerously extremist Islamic game, its jihadism, its link to creating terror and bulk shy of labelling PAS a terrorist political organization and those Islamic, state funded organizations like Jakim to lending PAS succour to peddle its Islamic feudalism through the false teachings of Islam.
Which brings us back to Anwar Ibrahim the so-called prime minister, who like Mahathir Mohamad, has the gift of the gab. When was the last time -- or the first time -- that Anwar Ibrahim called a spade a spade and took on PAS on its self-proclaimed Islam and Islamic credentials? He hasn't and he won't because, as I said in another comment earlier, Anwar Ibrahim is as weak as piss as a politician. He's clinging on to playing Malay hearts and minds to keep him in power. To directly attack PAS is to directly attack Islam that lives in the hearts and minds of a growing number of Malay men, women and children, all indoctrinated with a false ideology, with a dangerous ideology, with a racist ideology, with a narcissistic ideology, with a violent ideology, with a murderous ideology. Don't believe me? Look at Uganda today.Look at Somalia. Look at Egypt. Look at Palestine. Look at East Africa. Look at Pakistan. Look at Bangladesh. Look at Afghanistan. Look at Iran. Don't overlook Indonesia. And don't overlook the sponsors of violent Islamic jihadism in the Middle East. Or turkey for that matter.
Anwar Ibrahim will not speak ill of Turkey' fascist Erdogan, whom he calls his bosom buddy. Nor will he put down Hizbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood. Because, for all his false Asian Values, for all of the latter canard, he is himself a Malay and Islamist first who's peddling his Malay liberalism as nothing more than a big lie. And Dennis Ignatius should pluck the guts and call it for what they are of Anwar Ibrahim, of PAS, the brand of Islam in Malaysia, and of Malaysia. Too much pussyfooting around and trying to be politically correct for far too long while Malaysia turns itself every day into dirt.
At some point, Iran will have a secular revolution and rid itself of mad mullahs; unfortunately, by that time, Malaysia will have regressed to become an impoverished "...stan" in SE Asia. With theocratic, backward, feudal societies such as Pakistan and Afghanistan already on the verge of complete collapse, the last thing the world needs is an (almost) modern nation lurching towards social and economic disaster :-(
How this can happen in an age of mass knowledge and education, the Internet etc, is something historians in the far future will have to figure out, probably in bewilderment.
This makes for deeply grim reading. The fact that 13 years ago there was already some 72% of Malay-Muslim youths aged 15-25 who openly supported replacing the Federal Constitution (which enshrined freedom of religion) with Koran-based Sharia law should have been more widely known and rang alarm bells both within and outside Malaysia, yet it didn't.
These Malay-Muslim youths are now 13 years older in 2023, in the prime of their lives, and occupying a sizeable voting demographic bloc in Malaysian politics. They say politics and democratically-elected political leaders should reflect the society that voted them in. But what if that reflection is of an increasingly repressive and regressive nature? Leaders are supposed to lead societies to become something better. Instead what Malaysia is seeing is as the article shows, a backsliding and morphing into something more akin to Middle Eastern/Arabic Islamic societies and theocracy-heavy countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran.
A crying shame that this is coming to pass in Malaysia. It's not just non-Malay Muslims in Malaysia who have to worry about their position in Malaysian society and politics in the coming future, but also Malaysia's neighbouring countries too. Can Singapore feel safe with an out-and-out Islamised Malaysia on its doorstep with the propensity to sharpen its sabre-rattling and deep historical baggage about "a Chinese bastion in the middle of the Malay archipelago"? Can Thailand feel secure in its southern state holdings with a still-ongoing Islamic insurgency potentially being able to draw on more overt religious-motivated support from an Islamised Malaysia?
Plans have to be made. And they have to be made now.
This series by Dennis is well written & in my opinion balanced, thoughtful and forward looking
I would however politely suggest suggest that Malaysia sorry state is not due primarily to politics but due to the perculiar interaction of race , religion and nationalism aka. Malay pride “ketuanan Melayu“ etc etc
For even in a flawed democracy like Malaysia’s, a county’s politics and its politicians can’t exist unless their message appeals to and has support from the overwhelming majority.
For this majority it have been clear for the past 30years that they wish to move to a more radical, “pure” Middle Eastern Islam..
As such it is sad but tell ironic, yet only natural & inevitable that democratic Malaysia is now using it’s democratic process to become an Islamic state.
A process that is well on its way and has almost certainly reached the point of no return.
Sadly . Very sadly there is much truth to what is written here. Malaysia is well on its way to become a backward Islamic state (a forward looking one is a contradiction that denies reality). Many cannot see this as the prospect is too frightening &/or to far fetched. Many able to see this coming are resigned to the fact they can’t or won’t migrate and hence selective choose to ignore all the signs around them. Others have already gotten out of the country or made plans to do so.
So as it turns out, this article aged well...
"Malaysia can’t be a totally secular state, says PM."
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2023/07/10/malaysia-as-a-secular-state-is-unacceptable-says-pm/
https://youtu.be/LPv23N8FD1A
I just love the first picture where they're all like dressed and ready to do battle with primitive tools... lol
Welcome to the millenia...
Everything in this article contradicts what I see on the ground in KL. Actual city life seems to function beyond the political fray because politics is concerned with job growth for Bumiputera, and natural resource revenues are sufficient to sustain Malay political stability. So far, that dynamic--even with corruption--has allowed relative freedom for the dynamic private sector in KL and surrounding areas.
We should remember how modern & forward looking Iran was under Reza Palani. Then the Islamist took control and it’s a more or less - actually MORE, a failed state . Malaysia won’t be like Iran- but even 1/3 as bad is bad enough. Look at Kelantan & Trengganu - that is Malaysia’s future under pass: backward & poor… more mosque than hospitals & schools. That’s the “new” Malaysia.
For now.. but change is happening behind this
I don't think there is any doubt -- whatsoever -- that Anwar Ibrahim's "reformasi" was a red herring. It doesn't take an Einstein to see through Anwar and his shenanigans. Soon as Mahathir Mohamad coopted him from ABIM, the Islamist youth movement, he'd become hungrier and greedier for power. When Mahathir sacked him as his deputy and as finance minister, Anwar became a desperado. His reformasi call was more than public relations: it was his plea to all "Malaysians" -- whatever and whoever they may be, however defined in racist Malaysia's political economy -- to support him in regime change. He tried that again and again with his numbers game, plucking numbers from thin air to show he had support for regime change in Selangor state when in fact he didn't. Not one jot. Perhaps he thought he'd learnt from his mentor Mahathir the art of lying, the art of subterfuge. Maybe he did but it had zero effect -- until Najib Razak showed his hands at criminality. Voters tired of the party of liars, crooks and even of murder, UMNO, tosses it out but, in all their idiocy, voted, of all the political goons, Mahathir, without whom Pakatan Rakyat wouldn't have seen the light of political day. But it was all too late: the rot of Malaysia's corrupt politics, the stench of racism by -- let's get real -- all races in Malaysia, not just by the Malays -- was to grow even stronger with Mahathir at the helm again, playing the Malay socialist, and Anwar Ibrahim, playing the Malay liberal, could only clash. Clash they did when Mahathir shoved Anwar aside yet again from becoming prime minister. The result: Anwar became even more desperate. But, quietly -- very quietly -- he dropped his Malay liberal sarong, once he became prime minister -- by accident, not by calling -- and, knowing he would only survive politically if he could rally Malay kampong plebs as much as urban Malays, behind his call for a new reformasi -- one that kept Islam as the rock hard place that no non-Malays could challenge for its primacy , and his anti-corruption drive that changed to a lower gear, afraid to get the really big crooks, most of whom are Malays (not discounting Chinese and Indian corrupt crooks either) and focusing on the ikan bilis fry. Why? He can't afford to be seen as turning against the Malays whilst not going after corrupt big-time Chinese and Indian crooks.
Linked to that is of course Islam, which has always played the lining of the stomach to politics and the economy in Malaysia and needless to say, the politics of dead-hopeless corruption that is Malaysia. If there are a few things Malaysia is world famous for, apart from its food, it is that Malaysia is one of the most hideously corrupt and racist countries with a typical third world mentality, and maybe even fourth world (never mind the glass skyscrapers) and its millions of universities that churn out like sausage-making factories unemployable graduates. Like it or not Malaysia is an intellectually sterile joint where patronage politics, ignorance, even arrogance, and a feudalistic system of governance over its politics, economy and society reign so majestically.
What's the big deal about "political Islam" and what is it supposed to be? At what point in world history has religion -- any damn religion -- not been infused by politics from its very man-made start -- in the dark ages? Islam and politics were one and the same throughout Malaysia's politics from yesteryear. It's not an invention of the late 20th century nor of late capitalist development in Malaysia. Just because writers do not want to be pulled up by Islamic authorities that are funded by the Malay state, that thrive in the sanctuary of the "king" and the "sultans", they go soft as jello by naming it political Islam as if it has nothing to do with the early weaponization of Islam as a political tool and a political vehicle to power and wealth accumulation. Knee-weak coyness like this suggests why Anwar, like all his predecessors, don't dare taking on PAS at its dangerously extremist Islamic game, its jihadism, its link to creating terror and bulk shy of labelling PAS a terrorist political organization and those Islamic, state funded organizations like Jakim to lending PAS succour to peddle its Islamic feudalism through the false teachings of Islam.
Which brings us back to Anwar Ibrahim the so-called prime minister, who like Mahathir Mohamad, has the gift of the gab. When was the last time -- or the first time -- that Anwar Ibrahim called a spade a spade and took on PAS on its self-proclaimed Islam and Islamic credentials? He hasn't and he won't because, as I said in another comment earlier, Anwar Ibrahim is as weak as piss as a politician. He's clinging on to playing Malay hearts and minds to keep him in power. To directly attack PAS is to directly attack Islam that lives in the hearts and minds of a growing number of Malay men, women and children, all indoctrinated with a false ideology, with a dangerous ideology, with a racist ideology, with a narcissistic ideology, with a violent ideology, with a murderous ideology. Don't believe me? Look at Uganda today.Look at Somalia. Look at Egypt. Look at Palestine. Look at East Africa. Look at Pakistan. Look at Bangladesh. Look at Afghanistan. Look at Iran. Don't overlook Indonesia. And don't overlook the sponsors of violent Islamic jihadism in the Middle East. Or turkey for that matter.
Anwar Ibrahim will not speak ill of Turkey' fascist Erdogan, whom he calls his bosom buddy. Nor will he put down Hizbollah or the Muslim Brotherhood. Because, for all his false Asian Values, for all of the latter canard, he is himself a Malay and Islamist first who's peddling his Malay liberalism as nothing more than a big lie. And Dennis Ignatius should pluck the guts and call it for what they are of Anwar Ibrahim, of PAS, the brand of Islam in Malaysia, and of Malaysia. Too much pussyfooting around and trying to be politically correct for far too long while Malaysia turns itself every day into dirt.
That Malaysian politics is a true fiasco is no understatement
Anwar is gay. Are we allowed to say that?
I agree with John Berthelsen.
why does that matter? if he is or is not, it has nothing to do with the questions posed in this article, or these responses.
At some point, Iran will have a secular revolution and rid itself of mad mullahs; unfortunately, by that time, Malaysia will have regressed to become an impoverished "...stan" in SE Asia. With theocratic, backward, feudal societies such as Pakistan and Afghanistan already on the verge of complete collapse, the last thing the world needs is an (almost) modern nation lurching towards social and economic disaster :-(
How this can happen in an age of mass knowledge and education, the Internet etc, is something historians in the far future will have to figure out, probably in bewilderment.
This makes for deeply grim reading. The fact that 13 years ago there was already some 72% of Malay-Muslim youths aged 15-25 who openly supported replacing the Federal Constitution (which enshrined freedom of religion) with Koran-based Sharia law should have been more widely known and rang alarm bells both within and outside Malaysia, yet it didn't.
These Malay-Muslim youths are now 13 years older in 2023, in the prime of their lives, and occupying a sizeable voting demographic bloc in Malaysian politics. They say politics and democratically-elected political leaders should reflect the society that voted them in. But what if that reflection is of an increasingly repressive and regressive nature? Leaders are supposed to lead societies to become something better. Instead what Malaysia is seeing is as the article shows, a backsliding and morphing into something more akin to Middle Eastern/Arabic Islamic societies and theocracy-heavy countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran.
A crying shame that this is coming to pass in Malaysia. It's not just non-Malay Muslims in Malaysia who have to worry about their position in Malaysian society and politics in the coming future, but also Malaysia's neighbouring countries too. Can Singapore feel safe with an out-and-out Islamised Malaysia on its doorstep with the propensity to sharpen its sabre-rattling and deep historical baggage about "a Chinese bastion in the middle of the Malay archipelago"? Can Thailand feel secure in its southern state holdings with a still-ongoing Islamic insurgency potentially being able to draw on more overt religious-motivated support from an Islamised Malaysia?
Plans have to be made. And they have to be made now.