Malaysia’s model of communal harmony imposes a political structure as well. It has a steady model of racial coalition politics. These coalitions are not born out of any occasional parliamentary political necessity for short-term working relationships. They are a long-term, thoughtful strategy of working together for the mutual interests. The ruling coalition and the opposition coalition are both multi-racial alliances. While the dominant alliance has more ideological harmony and working relationships between the Malay, Chinese, and the Indian parties, the opposition alliance has an interesting mix of an Islamic party demanding Islamic laws, the pro-West liberals, and a Chinese party with historic ties to the ruling party of Singapore. But it is a multi-racial coalition nevertheless. Only in Malaysia could an Islamic party be a part of such an ideologically diverse coalition.
American scholars who have been desperately looking for “moderate Islam” have somehow missed Malaysia. Maybe it is their social science bias that individual rights are everything and communal identities are nothing but trouble, or perhaps a bit of Islamopobia playing a role in neglecting this “Muslim” success story.
There is no human endeavor that can be perfect. And that is true of Malaysia as well, which is the longest lasting parliamentary democracy in the Muslim world. While there, I read about Malay Muslims’ discomfort with a Christian missionary strategy to call Jesus Allah in the Malay language Bible. The Sultan of Selangor declared that Christians cannot do that. The Muslims from the opposition alliance supported the right of Christians to call their Jesus by any name.
The government remained mostly silent to the controversy until someone crossed the invisible Malaysian line of racial and religious respect. When a little pro-government politician threatened to burn the Bible which uses the name Allah for God, the police moved in, registering a case of “sedition” against the politician.
Malaysia takes ethnic conflicts very seriously. Since 1969, when Malaysia faced some race riots, any deliberate attempt to hurt a religious or racial group is taken very seriously. Attacks on places of worship do happen, but far less than in the US. Individual freedom to be irresponsible is contained for the sake of communal harmony.
They got peace.
No wonder as many tourists show up in Malaysia every year as there are Malaysians: 28 millions of them last year.
It is a happy country. 58% of Malaysian youth surveyed say Malaysia is moving in the right direction as compared to only 24 percent of the U.S. college students surveyed feel positive about America’s future.
The Malaysian GDP is growing an average of 6.5% for almost 50 years. Not too fast. Not too slow. That is the Malaysian way.
Malaysia will likely continue to grow. It is ranked the 12th most business friendly country in the world; first in terms of ease of getting credit and fourth in protecting investment. It is better than Canada, Japan, France and Israel in terms of business friendliness. It is also the only Muslim country in the top ranking of Doing Business 2013, a World Bank and the International Monitory Fund (IMF) report. Interestingly it is the IMF and the World Bank that Malaysia defied under the leadership of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to protect its national interest during the financial crisis of Southeast Asia in 1997.
I have visited Malaysia every few years since the 1970s. I have always found it moving forward, more developed, ever respectful of the “other”, and dare I say it: very Muslim.
Malaysia must tell its success story to the world. And please don’t mess with success!
It is indeed a brief but comprehensive description
Good exposition. I am wondering how Malaysia avoids resentments that are stirred up in countries like USA and Pakistan vis-a-vis ethnic quotas
Resentment is there. However, the point is that it is mediated by other factors and is not allowed to turn into a violent situation.
Thanks Imam Abdul Malik. We met at the International Conference on Global Movement of Moderates. Let’s pray for a bright future ahead.
Dear Imam Malik.
Whenever you will be in Malaysia again, very much in advance, do send me email for me. I who represent 282 Malay, Muslim & Bumipputera NGOs in Malaysia will organize session for you to talk on the Importance of Islamic Civilization in Ensuring Harmony in Malaysia. Dr Wan is part of the team I am setting up to prepare the Islamic Civilization Agenda for Malaysia.
Before I congratulate your kind self, I would like to relate an anecdote that I attended last year at the Fundamental Rights Platform (under Fundamental Rights Agency of EC), where I asked the EC spokes person on “why EU does not look back to Ottoman history as well as contemporary Malaysian political history as an example” and the reply I got “we do not take example from others”. With plus and minuses, I do have great salutation to Malaysia and its government how they handle their political, social, economic and the most important religious matters.
As anyone with access to the internet will know, Malaysia is one of the most corrupt and racist countries in the world. Transparency International recently ranked it as the #1 country in the world where corporations expect to be asked for a bribe. Its Prime Minister has been videotaped committing the election offence of trying to bribe the residents of Sibu in a by-election and yet nothing is done (search YouTube for “You help me, I help you” and Sibu). You must have had your blinkers on when you visited Malaysia. This country is a disgrace to any religion that professes to believe in God.
And let’s not forget the torching of churches and the latest call to burn Bibles by a government linked “NGO”. Of course, the party involved, Ibrahim Ali of the Perkasa Malay Supremacy Movement, is still roaming free and spitting venom with the overt blessing of our longest-serving Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamed, an Indian by patriarchal lineage who somehow made himself into a Malay and thus availing himself to the benefits of racially discriminatory affirmative action policies.