'More Islamic than thou' little resonance in East Msia

East Malaysians baffled by hudud squabble

East Malaysians do not share peninsular Malaysians' paranoia regarding religious matters. Sabah and Sarawak both have sizeable non-Muslim populations: 74 percent in Sarawak and perhaps 36 percent in Sabah.

In both states, Islam has prospered over the centuries, with no bloodshed and virtually no animosity.


Sabah and Sarawak have been a little bemused by the hype of political Islam that has pervaded peninsular Malaysian politics for the past three decades.

The increasingly feverish race between Umno and PAS to win Malay votes in peninsular Malaysia by being 'more Islamic than thou' finds little resonance among east Malaysians.

Instead, Umno's political gambit of banning the use of the word 'Allah' by non-Muslims, and of impounding bibles in Malay, caused unease among most Sabahans and Sarawakians who cherish their religious harmony - Christians and Muslims alike.

During April's state election campaign, Sarawak's Chief Minister Taib Mahmud (right) was even moved to claim that he had told Premier Najib Abdul Razak that stamping bibles in Malay with serial numbers had been a "stupid idea".

A demographic revolution

Sabah has only recently become a Muslim-majority state, according to official figures. But Sabahans' traditional mutual respect for different religions remains strong.

Sabah's Muslim population surged because of the political manipulations of former chief minister Harris Salleh and former premier Mahathir Mohamad.

'Project M', the campaign to encourage Muslim immigration into Sabah from Indonesia and the southern Philippines to shore up support for Umno and its allies, has been well documented, including in Malaysiakini's special report in 2006 and in Wikileaks' recent revelations.

Sabah has been a Christian-majority state in the century following the first settlement of the North Borneo Chartered Company on Pulau Gaya in 1882, thanks to the protection provided by the British colonial company for Christian missionaries.

The company's beach head establishment of a harbour on the island was soon put to the torch by local folk hero Mat Salleh. But the company persevered, and eventually took control of North Borneo, now Sabah,a territory larger than half of England.

Today, Pulau Gaya, just off the waterfront of Kota Kinabalu,is dominated by a Filipino 'water village', or colony on stilts. Most of these settlers are Muslims from Mindanao, migrants here over the past 30 years.

Sarawak,too, has witnessed climbing numbers of Muslim Indonesian immigrants, working in oil palm estates and low-paying construction and service sector jobs.

These Indonesians have kept the moribund local economy going, since many young Sarawakian Dayaks have left home in search of better work in the Klang Valley, Johor and Singapore.

Indeed, along the Federal Highway connecting Klang and Kuala Lumpur, drivers see notices plastered on the walls of flyovers, advertising local agencies for maids and labourers ("Myanmar/Sabah/Sarawak").

Sabah and Sarawak workers appear to be as much in demand as Burmese workers, and viewed in much the same light.

Sarawakians are accustomed to being considered economic refugees. So despite the usual concerns over increasing crime rates attributed to migrants, Sarawakians generally understand the struggles of Indonesian immigrants, most of whom are trying to eke out a living in Malaysia in order to send money home.

Religious discrimination in everyday life against the Malay Muslim minority in Sarawak is also extremely rare. In fact, many Sarawakian Malays even resent the religious strictures imposed by political Islam, as represented by Umno and its supporters in Sarawak's ruling BN coalition, or by PAS.

There is little enthusiasm for the social segregation demanded by strictures such as outward expressions of faith: for example, many local Sarawakian Muslims are comfortable eating in coffee shops where non-halal food is also on offer, and Muslim women do not face the same peer pressure to wear the tudung or head covering, as in peninsular Malaysia.

Hudud debate needs perspective

Many Sabahans and Sarawakians, particularly in rural areas, are not aware of the ongoing spat between PAS and the DAP over the application of hudud laws in Kelantan. To be frank, most do not care.
Sarawak's BN has mined this issue of dissonance between DAP and PAS during every single election since the last century.

But the general lack of support for hudud laws in east Malaysia means voters are aware this conflict is played out for the benefit of Malay and Chinese voters in peninsular Malaysia.

East Malaysians are not the target audience.

Indeed, BN played the same tune at the Sarawak state elections in April, and yet the DAP won its highest number of seats ever.

Perhaps the top leaders of Pakatan Rakyat ought to declare a truce, and reconsider the utility of their very public arguments over hudud laws that do not have the support of most peninsular Malaysians - including Malays - outside Kelantan.

There is, understandably, widespread concern among liberals over the creeping power of the state, if hudud laws come into force.

Yet the United States executes more prisoners, with its barbaric death penalty, than all other nations except Saudi Arabia and China. Still, the US provides more democratic and libertarian guarantees than almost any other country.

Relatively enlightened societies, as in the US, may still support and vote for bad laws like the death penalty. The Kelantanese may feel they are merely exercising their right of self-determination, despite the constitutional inconsistencies this may produce.

Malaysians, like Americans, need time to modify their attitudes towards laws like the mandatory death penalty, and even the Internal Security Act. A significant number of Malaysians still support the execution of drug traffickers, as we saw from condemnations of Yong Vui Kong in Malaysiakini and other news portals.

In the meantime, we need to encourage discussion over hudud, rather than confrontation. Popular perceptions of unjust laws can only be tempered and reformed over long periods of democratic engagement.

Political leaders like Nik Aziz Nik Mat, PAS's spiritual advisor, and Karpal Singh, may be sparring for reasons of principle, as well as political expediency. But voters in Sabah and Sarawak, where the next general election will be decided, are unimpressed.

The DAP's protestations against hudud, and PAS's attacks on the DAP, will not win many fence-sitters' votes. The DAP and PAS both have their solid constituencies, and these do not lie in Sabah or Sarawak.

Is playing the religious card the appropriate role of visionary political leaders? Or would their purpose be better served byconcentrating on offering real alternatives to the endemic corruption and poverty the eastern states?

DAP, PKR and PAS need to disseminate their Orange Book promises of greater autonomy and petroleum royalties.

They must convince rural and urban voters in Sabah and Sarawak that these will make concrete differences to their lives, instead of wasting energy and voters' goodwill in arguing over hudud.

Written by Keruah Usit