(Penang, Monday): Two
important events, one outside and the other inside the country,
took place in September last year with far-reaching influence on
Malaysian politics, nation-building and the citizenship rights of generations of
Malaysians.
The
first was the September
(or 911) terrorist attacks
in the United States which transformed the
global political landscape and
Malaysian political scenario, making terrorism and extremism of any form the No.
1 fear of the peoples of the world as they threaten the security and stability
of all societies and nations.
The
second was the September 29 (or 929) announcement by the Prime Minister, Datuk
Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at the Gerakan national 30th delegates’
conference that Malaysia was an Islamic state. This 929 declaration constituted
a tectonic shift in Malaysian nation-building, jettisoning the
fundamental constitutional principle and nation-building cornerstone in
the 44-year 1957 Merdeka “social
contract” agreed by our forefathers from the major communities
that Malaysia is a democratic, secular, multi-religious, tolerant and
progressive nation with Islam as the official religion but is not an Islamic
state - buttressed by the
constitutional, political and legal history of over
four decades, starting from the Reid Constitution Commission Report 1957,
the Government White Paper on the Constitutional Proposals, the Federal
Constitution 1957, the Cobbold Commission Report 1963, and
the highest political and judicial pronouncements of the land such as by
Bapa Malaysia and the first Prime
Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman and the
Lord President, Tun Salleh Abas in the
landmark case Che Omar bin Che Soh vs Public Prosecutor (1988) that Malaysia
is a secular and not an Islamic state.
The
DAP has launched a people’s awareness campaign to call on the
people of Penang to lead Malaysians to say “No to 911” and “No to
929” to save the country from terrorism and extremism
of any form as well as to preserve
the 1957 Merdeka Constitution “social contract” that Islam is the official
religion but Malaysia is not an Islamic state.
Mahathir’s
929 declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic state has plunged the country into
its second great nation-building crisis since independence in 1957.
In
1994, Mahathir publicly announced that
the Barisan Nasional government had given up
its nation-building policy
of assimilation as it had realised that this was
unsuitable for a plural society like Malaysia and that integration and
not assimilation should be the basis of the nation-building process in the
country.
Although
Mahathir did not tell the whole story as he had not admitted
that the Barisan Nasional was conceding to the consistent opposition of
the DAP to the policy of
assimilation and advocacy of the policy of integration,
his announcement marked an important milestone
in Malaysia’s first great
nation-building crisis since Merdeka where the DAP spearheaded
the political campaign for some three
decades to defend the
multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious character of
Malaysia, as marked by our
uncompromising stand against the Barisan Nasional’s “One language,
one culture, one religion” policy, the attempts
to implement Section 21(2)
powers of 1961 Education Act to
convert Chinese primary schools into national primary schools, the refusal to
accord recognition to the proper study
and use of mother-tongue languages
as on signboards and banners or free
cultural expressions as banning the
lion dance as “un-Malaysian” and wanting it to be replaced by the “tiger
dance” or the 1984 Malacca State
Government attempt to demolish Bukit China, the most ancient 500-year-old
Malaysian Chinese cemetry hill in the country.
The
battle against assimilation is not completely over, as there are still
outstanding issues like the controversies over the re-opening of the
Damansara Chinese Primary School, the Vision Schools, Suqiu and the
“final objective” of the National Education Policy, but an important
milestone had been reached with the concession in principle that the policy of
assimilation is not suitable for Malaysia..
But
now Malaysians are faced with the second great nation-building crisis since
Merdeka - the unilateral, undemocratic and unconstitutional attempt to jettison
the 1957 Merdeka Constitution “social contract” of Malaysia as a democratic,
secular, multi-religious, tolerant and progressive nation with Islam as the
official religion but not an Islamic state.
There
are great differences between these
two great nation-building crises which
make me worry as to whether we can be as successful in the second as in the
first great nation-building crisis to protect our fundamental constitutional
rights and interests and those of future generations.
First,
the question of time. The first great nation-building crisis
in the battle against assimilation had taken over three decades
of consistent and uncompromising opposition, with many DAP leaders detained
under the Internal Security Act and great public
awareness of the issues at stake, before the Barisan Nasional conceded in principle if not
totally in practice that it is not suitable for plural Malaysia.
The
second great nation-building crisis
will not have the benefit of three decades to conscientise and mobilise
the people to defend the 1957 Merdeka “social contract” to ensure that
Malaysia does not become an Islamic State, as the next general elections which
could be held in less than 12 months would be taken as a test whether there is
popular mandate to give national endorsement to Mahathir’s 929
declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic State.
Second,
the question of public awareness and consciousness. Unlike the battle against
assimilation, there is hardly any public
awareness or sense of crisis at the tectonic shift and far-reaching
fundamental changes which would be wrought in all fields of national
life, political, economic, legal, educational, social, religious,
citizenship, etc when a national
endorsement is given in the next general elections to Mahathir’s 929
declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic state.
This
was illustrated in Penang in the past week, when Penang DAP aroused great public
curiosity in its “No to 929” poster
campaign - with most people
not knowing what is
“929” or why “929” is very important to them and future generations as
citizens of Malaysia and stakeholders of the destiny of the nation.
The
people of Penang and Malaysia must learn
a lesson from the French presidential elections.
The French people had a fright of their lives when the spectres of
far-right fascism and neo-Nazism reared their
ugly heads in French politics, after
the far-right leader Jean-Marie
Le Pen ousted Socialist Party French premier Lionel Jospin in the first round of
French presidential elections to
become the presidential front-runner with incumbent conservative President
Jacques Chirac, with Le Pen securing 16% and Chirac 19% of the votes.
However,
the French voters had an opportunity yesterday to redeem the blunders of their
political apathy and to avert France from a disastrous future
in the second round of presidential
voting by giving Chirac a crushing victory of 82.1% against Len Pen’s
17.9%.
Malaysian
voters, however, will not have such a second chance to undo their mistakes if in
the next general elections in less than 12 months, they unconsciously and
unintentionally give a national mandate to endorse Mahathir’s 929 declaration
of Malaysia as an Islamic state.
I
am astounded by the perverted logic of the Penang Chief Minister and Gerakan
vice president Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon who yesterday blamed the DAP for
Gerakan’s supporting Mahathir’s “929” declaration of Malaysia as an
Islamic state.
Koh
said Gerakan and MCA should not be accused of supporting Malaysia as an Islamic
state as it is the DAP which should be held responsible for paving the way for
PAS to gain momentum in the Malaysian political scene during the last general
election.
Instead
of such convoluted discourse, Koh and the Gerakan leaders should come out
forthrightly and declare that they should not be faulted for supporting the 929
declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic State, (although a week earlier, they were
denouncing Islamic State without qualification in the Sarawak state general
election) as the DAP had forced
them into it - and let there be a public debate as to whether such self-serving
political arguments can withstand public scrutiny.
(6/5/2002)