Malaysia’s Islamists Going for the Mainstream?

By John Gee

With the Kuala Lumpur skyline in the background, Malaysian supporters of former Deputy Prime Minister and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim listen as he speaks at an April 14 mass rally celebrating the lifting of his ban from politics.

ELECTORAL POLITICS in Malaysia has brought changes in the declared policies of its major Islamist party, just as it has to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the AKP in Turkey.

The Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) was shaken by the outcome of the 2004 general election, when it lost the state of Terengganu to the government coalition after gaining it in the 1999 elections, and retained control of its traditional stronghold of Kelantan by only a single seat. Its presence in the federal parliament was reduced from 27 seats to six.

While one trend in the party was to call for a reassertion of traditional party values, another—associated chiefly with younger members—called for adaptation to the changes in the social environment in which the party worked. According to that argument, in order to appeal to the public PAS needed to project a more modern image. One sign of change was in the party’s attitudes toward music, of which it used to have a negative view. Now it stages concerts in which songs that reflect religious values are performed.

In the March 8, 2008 election, PAS for the first time did not include in its manifesto the establishment of an Islamic state. Instead, it emphasized a commitment to good government and political reform, and cooperated closely with its opposition partners, the largely Chinese-based Democratic Action Party and the reformist Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), headed by Anwar Ibrahim. It restored its strength in Kelantan, became the strongest party in the Kedah state government, and won 23 of the 82 seats taken by opposition parties in the federal parliament.

A crucial challenge for the opposition allies was how to continue working together as a credible force over the coming four years before the next elections without falling out over the divergent elements in their agendas. At the beginning of April, they held a press conference and announced the formation of the People’s Alliance coalition, which probably would not have been possible had PAS not maintained the approach it took during the election campaign.

Speaking to the Chinese-language Sin Chew Daily on April 6, PAS president Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang said that it would not push for the implementation of syariah (shariah) law, and observed:

“In reality, an Islamic state is not poles apart from DAP’s socialism: our stand on some issues such as justice, anti-graft and poverty eradication are the same.”

Forty percent of Malaysians are non-Muslims, and they have consistently viewed the issue of implementing syariah law as a threat. Paradoxically, one of the factors that cost the government coalition support among non-Muslims were its attempts to beat PAS in appealing for Muslim support—including upholding a series of judgments that gave religious law a higher status than federal law, and a campaign of demolition of Hindu temples built without authorization.

Mass Escape Alarms Singaporeans

There are moments in Singapore when I am reminded how secure most people feel. At food courts, students often put their bags on seats to reserve them and then go to buy food from hawkers’ stands. A couple of weeks ago, I saw a box left unattended on a train. I looked around at the faces of my fellow passengers; none paid it the slightest attention.

Having lived in London during the recent decades of conflict in Ireland, I grew used to its level of security consciousness. Railway stations routinely broadcast the warning that unattended luggage might be destroyed; rubbish bins were removed from many of the city’s streets lest they have bombs left in them. Once, I went to a bank on my way to deliver a parcel at a nearby address. Happily strolling along the road a few minutes later, I suddenly realized that I’d left the bank empty-handed. Rushing back, I found staff and customers outside, behind a group of policemen. One embarrassing explanation later, I was on my way, with the suspicious package under my arm. The bank staff seemed to regard the incident as a welcome change to their routine; the customers looked scornful, angry or resigned.

The last time Singapore faced anything similar to such conditions was in the 1960s, during Indonesian President Sukarno’s campaign of “Confrontation” against Malaysia. A year of terrorist attacks began with an explosion at the Ambassador Hotel on Sept. 24, 1964. The worst incident was the detonation of a bomb inside MacDonald House, in the prime central Singapore location of Orchard Road. Three people were killed and 33 injured.

The normal composure of the country was again disturbed in August-September 2002, when 21 members of an extremist Muslim group were arrested and accused of intending to carry out bomb attacks on various installations, including the international airport, Ministry of Defense, industrial plants, a waterworks and a pub popular with visiting U.S. armed forces personnel. Evidence was produced of links with the Jemaah Islamiah regional network, responsible soon afterward—in October 2002—for the Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.

The leader of the group, Mas Selamat Kastari, tried to take refuge in Indonesia, but was detained and sentenced to one and a half years in prison in July 2003 for violating its immigration laws. Following this, he was detained in Singapore, but escaped on Feb. 27 from the detention center where he was being held.

Searches were organized, “wanted” pictures shown on television, printed in papers, put on flyers displayed in offices and lobbies of public buildings, and, just in case anyone had not noticed them, leaflets were distributed at many sites across the country. With little information initially available about how Mas Selamat had escaped, elaborate conspiracy theories circulated: he was dead, and the escape story was a cover up; he’d been allowed to get away in return for the release of a French captive held by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The police were kept busy with reported sightings. The story hardly seemed to be out of the news for the next two months, and was a regular topic of conversation.

It was eventually reported in parliament on April 21 that Mas Selamat had escaped during a prison visit by relatives. Allowed to use a washroom closet with the door closed, he escaped through a window that, through an oversight during renovation, had not been barred. A new structure had been built so close to the detention center’s perimeter fence that he was able to climb onto it and leap over.

The escape did not cause panic, but it did make many think again about their easy assumptions about security. Despite being a very regulated country in various ways, there is not a heavy police presence. Is that going to change?

John Gee is a free-lance journalist based in Southeast Asia, and the author of Unequal Enemies: The Palestinians and Israel, available from the AET Book Club.