The result may be to produce two ‘extremist’ elephants that may well trample all mousedeer caught between them.

by Mustafa K Anuar

...somebody is bound to get trampled

Gajah sama gajah berjuang, pelanduk mati di tengah-tengah. So goes the Malay saying that when two elephants fight, the mouse deer in between is trampled to death.

This threatens to be the case with the Malay community in particular and Malaysians in general who often bear witness and fall victim to the protracted and acrimonious political battle between the Malay-nationalist UMNO and Islamic-based PAS.

Unfortunately the fierce competition between the two Malay parties to capture the hearts and minds of their political constituencies invariably involves name-calling, mudslinging, and outbidding the other, especially when it comes to what they separately perceive to be the ‘true practice’ of Islam.

UMNO-PAS Battles

Usually, UMNO’s actions are more easily known and felt by the Malay community and Malaysians in general because this dominant party in the ruling coalition has the political muscle to translate its actions into news in the mainstream media.

Ideological counter-attacks by PAS are usually less visible because the mainstream media deny PAS any meaningful access. But this doesn’t mean that PAS is less strident in its political commentaries and policies, and religious prescriptions.

In their ideological warfare, UMNO typically demonises PAS via the mainstream media. There the UMNO bigwigs hurl all sorts of indecorous labels at the PAS leadership.

Such antics are widespread in the run-up to a general election or even by-election. At times this demonisation takes on an uglier form, such as when UMNO faces its own political crisis. This has been clearly so in the aftermath of Anwar’s expulsion from UMNO which caused the party to lose its political grip on a large section of the Malay community – naturally to the advantage of PAS, UMNO’s nemesis.

To a large extent, that political context is still with us. Hence, UMNO has repeatedly warned the Malaysian public against supporting the ‘religious extremist’ PAS. Some quarters have gone so far as to intimate that PAS is ‘Malaysia’s Taliban’!

In turn PAS and its members have their own labels for UMNO and the latter’s leadership. However, these labels are seldom publicised partly because the mainstream media isn’t inclined to report bad things said about UMNO. They only repeat them if it is useful for the UMNO leadership to make its calculated response.

Labelling Follies

But dangerous labels make for dangerous situations! The demonisation of a particular leader or political party over a period of time could justify a undignified, demeaning or undemocratic treatment of the party and individuals concerned. When someone or a party is exaggeratedly portrayed as a vicious villain, it is as if the person or party deserves to be ostracized or harshly treated in proportion to their alleged ‘misdeeds’.

When it is employed by those in power, such a political strategy is often calculated to create an air of anxiety, even alarm and collective fear among the general public so that they consent, or at least acquiesce, to undemocratic actions taken against the vilified party. The rest is merely rationalization: national security, Malay unity, or whatever is convenient for the moment.

Malaysians must therefore take special notice of certain comments made by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed in his recent speech at a Harvard Club of Malaysia dinner. There Dr Mahathir characterised PAS as a party which could destroy the country and its inter-ethnic harmony if it was voted into power. In one of his oft-repeated warnings about the ‘danger of the wrong party being elected and forming the government’, Dr Mahathir said that certain people will use democracy to destroy democracy.

Remember, Dr Mahathir added, ‘many so-called liberal democracies do not allow communists and fascists to participate in their elections.’ Ominously, he then added, ‘Can we take a leaf from their book and risk condemnation for not being democratic?’

No Malaysian will be so stupid as not to see that the Prime Minister was attempting to equate Pas with ‘communists and fascists’. The ‘communist’ label is, of course, ideologically pregnant and explosive within Malaysian politics. Even UMNO members tainted with the label of ‘communist’ have been detained under ISA before, with almost no one daring to come to their rescue.

What kind of raw fear and hatred was Dr Mahathir trying to evoke among Malaysians towards PAS by hinting that this Islamic party, as it were, is no different from ‘communists and fascists’?

Don’t Demonise PAS

Whatever we think of PAS’s ideological persuasion and theocratic inclination, we should not equate PAS with ‘communists and fascists’. Nor should we portray PAS as ‘Malaysia’s Taliban’.

Whether we support or oppose PAS’s programme, PAS has conducted itself as a political party hitherto committed to making changes in society through constitutional means. Despite all kinds of unproven accusations made against it, PAS has neither advocated nor practised violence as its way of competing in the political arena. PAS has conducted itself as a legitimate political party and it has every right as does any other political grouping in Malaysia – including UMNO — to exist and participate lawfully in the country’s different forms of political competition.

Indeed falsely labeling any party can be dangerously counter-productive. It can frustrate, and radicalize, certain sections of a political party – including PAS and UMNO – to such an extent that the party’s ideological and political stands on certain issues are hardened. This might in turn compel the party’s rivals to become equally radicalized.

The result may be to produce two ‘extremist’ elephants that may well trample all mousedeer caught between them.

Those in power should take care not to talk glibly about de-legitimizing any lawfully constituted opposition party when public support for the ruling party declines. There can never be an acceptable solution to political problems when a ruling party drives its opposition , or at least certain sections of its membership, ‘underground’. When lawful dissent and legal opposition replaced by truly militant means of political competition, the result can only be a national disaster for everybody.

It is not just PAS that claims to be morally superior. UMNO also strives to portray itself as a party that is morally more upright than PAS in defending treasured secular and Islamic values such as political and financial propriety. Recently UMNO, through its de facto Law Minister Rais Yatim, expressed deep concern that the ‘Pas-led Kelantan Government had offered land to several investigation and enforcement officers.’ Of course, the mainstream media made a meal out of this alleged ‘land graft in Kelantan’ episode, (NST Aug. 5, 2002)..

In contrast, the UMNO-led federal government seemed to have sat quietly on an allegation made by Keadilan Youth Chief Mohd Ezam Mohd Noor that International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz (left) was involved in a financial scandal and that former Melaka chief minister Rahim Tamby Chik was implicated in a case of power abuse. In this instance, the result was that he who blew the whistle went to jail. Ezam was sentenced to two years’ jail for having violated the Official Secrets Act.

Anti-democratic Actions

The intense political fighting between UMNO and PAS has also witnessed the government’s use of undemocratic means to check the feared advancement of PAS especially in the Malay heartland. Hence, numerous curbs have been imposed on the freedom of expression and assembly (such as sales of party organs and political ceramah) that are primarily targeted against PAS. Needless to say, the impact of these curbs is keenly felt by other political parties and ordinary people.

Unfortunately for PAS, some of its own actions only lend credence to UMNO’s labeling of PAS. Not a few people, Muslims and non-Muslims perceive PAS to be a party that is extremist in religion, intolerant of divergent views, and unsympathetic to women’s active participation in social and political affairs.

PAS’s single-minded pursuit of Hudud is a case in point. There have been many calls from many quarters for deeper reflections on the impact of such a piece of legislation on Malaysian society; and for engaged and meaningful discussions with women’s groups, NGOs and other Muslim and non-Muslim organizations. The PAS government in Terengganu has refused to accede to all calls for the deferment of the enactment of Hudud in the state.

Consequently, many Malaysians consider PAS to be an Islamic party that is rushing to enhance its Islamic credentials while battling UMNO to the extent of marginalizing the real concerns and fears of Muslims and non-Muslims.

If anything, PAS’s haste only reinforces suspicions that PAS, as a political party, is really ‘Islamic exclusivist’ and dogmatic, and oblivious of the multiethnic and multireligious complexion of our society. No doubt these suspicions are not different from those put forth by UMNO’s propaganda machines.

Its fight with PAS has also radicalized UMNO, or at least sections within the party, in its approach to seize the ‘Islamic imagination’ of the Malay-Muslim constituency. As everyone knows, Dr Mahathir went so far as to declare that Malaysia is already an Islamic state. What was this unilateral declaration if not clearly a response to PAS’ initiatives in order to improve UMNO’s Islamic standing.

Dr Mahathir’s sudden announcement itself raised fears, concerns and anxiety, particularly among Malaysians of other faiths who have yet to fathom what this announcement entails in their daily life.

In our multiethnic and multireligious society, neither dogmatic nor opportunisitic approaches towards matters of religion can bring mutual understanding of each other’s cultures and religious traditions, or promote better gender power-relations, cultural enrichment, scientific development, democracy and justice.

Nor can a genuine respect for the concerns and interests of ordinary people emerge in the midst of a fierce battle between the two biggest Malay parties.

But let’s not be so easily discouraged. Ordinary citizens, like the very wise mousedeer of Malay folklore, are not destined to suffer ‘death between the elephants’. In their common decency and collective wisdom they can reject the self-serving desires of political elephants who lay dubious claim to dominance via Islam – because Islam, ultimately, enjoins all people to celebrate our common humanity.

Now tell us what you think. E-mail us.