Changes in Malaysian Muslim Society

Former Perlis state mufti (Muslim cleric) Dr Mohd Asri Zainul said that the interpretation of Islamic faith should not be monopolized by the authorities. He said that dialogue and discussion help generate new ideas and are good for checks and balances.
Asri said that the interpretation of Islamic teachings is no longer monopolized by a single power or authority. Multilateral discussion is a healthy trend. When the society is no longer constrained by a single opinion, the people will see the birth of a force that can play the role of checks and balances.
"The authorities cannot continue to monopolize the authority to interpret Islam. Before this, the ruling party monopolized the power of discourse in religion. This has become impossible now," he said.
He said that as a result of the free flow of information and the Internet era, young Muslims have the chance to expose themselves to a lot of information from other countries. Now they have much broader views on Islam and do not limit themselves to a particular interpretation of Islam any more. This is a change in the Malay society.
In his opinion, this is not a phenomenon of diversification of Islam; instead, it is returning to the path of the real Islam -- a harmonious religion and not a race-based religion. Islam had had a glorious history of civilization some time ago.
Asri said this when commenting on Islam-related issues in Malaysia, especially the many cases related to the role of the religious departments in an exclusive interview with Oriental Daily.
People Inciting Sentiment Akin to Hitler
When asked to comment on "sanctity" of Islam, an utmost concern of some Muslims, he opined that those issues are all related to the powers that be and have nothing to do with "sanctity". Those in the power have tried to make use of religion to sustain their powers.
"That's why non-Muslims cannot touch on Islamic issues. These are our business. This is Islam. Actually Islam does not mention these (matters concerning sanctity), it is not mentioned in the Quran and the Hadith either.
"In the name of uphoding Islam, these people make use of religious and racial issues to woo supports by inciting the people's sentiment. This is not much different from Adolf Hitler.
"Actually some issues are related to religion. Those are issues about powers and political influence. Both the United Malays National Organization and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party have their own arguments. Both parties claim they represent Islam. We would like to know based on which version of Islam they have made those arguments," he said.
In his opinion, the Malay society has gradually developed mature views on Islam. They would not be influenced by the religious arguments of political parties so easily. He said that Muslims can check the Internet to make comparison and research to find out whether a fatwa (religious decree) ruled by the National Fatwa Council meets international standards or the council has only made the fatwa because of a request from a certain political party.
Internet is Open University for Muslims
Asri described the Internet as an open university for Muslims. Because of the Internet, they would not follow blindly rulings unilaterally announced by a particular body. Instead, they have learned to seek different opinions. This could be seen in the case of the yoga ban.
"When you say this is 'haram' (forbidden by Islamic law), the people will say, 'Wait a minute, let me check and see if this is a fatwa released by you only.' In the past, all would abide by the decisions made by the National Fatwa Council. There was no objection at all. But the situation is different now," he said.
He said that when he was holding the post of Perlis mufti, he made room for discussion. Muslims started to contemplate about the real Islam. What Malaysia should pursue is a real Islam belongs to the whole world, not an Islam belongs to the Malays.
He pointed out that before this, Islam in Malaysia solely followed a proposition and mixed it with racial issues to come out with a unique argument that advocates "protecting the Malays with religion". Now the people have freed themselves from this traditional mentality and started to compare the Islam in Malaysia with Islam in other countries.
"Scholars rise up to speak up their own views and this inspires Muslims to think. Now Muslims can acquire information and find out different ways of interpretation easily," he said.
Religion Should Not Seek Protection Under Political Power
Asri said that the foundation of religion should be faith. The authorities are not able to provide long term guarantee that the faith would not be destroyed. In his view, religion is faith and a faith cannot rely on the protection provided by the authorities but the authorities can help in meeting the needs of a faith.
Have the Islamic bodies and enforcement agencies in Malaysia really defended the status of Islam as the official religion in an effective manner?
According to Asri, the Malays assume that they will only be protected if they control the power. This is a wrong perception. Muslims should safeguard Islam, not the Malays. Asri said that Christianity had attempted to defend the religion by resorting to the ruling power but ultimately it was cast aside by the people. No doubt the power is there. But when the people are no longer confident in their faith and lose faith in the political power, they may rise up to topple the power.
"The authority has to be established on the foundation of the people's trust. If the people believe in justice and religious strength in Islam and the authority can help upholding this justice, then the political power will prevail.
"If the Malays ignore (the religion), especially the young generation who would not bow to hard approach, and if they do not get adequate explanation in some Islamic issues, I am afraid these powers may be gone one day.
"Although these powers are controlled by the enforcement agencies and stipulated in the laws, if the people do not believe (in the political power), these laws cannot play their role," he said.
He opined that it is not a matter related to authority that the religious bodies cannot operate effectively but it is because these bodies are not established on the foundation of trust. The Malay society has a wrong perception. They presume that they can enhance their religious faith by strengthening religious bodies and enforcement agencies. This was shown in the case of a recent raid of the Selangor Islamic Religious Department on a Christian church.
"If such situation persists, they will lose their faith in the existing institutions because the powers-that-be cannot convince the people with irrefutable evidence, data, and arguments," he said.
In his opinion, a forcible intervention by resorting to power will backfire. It will also set a wrong example.
Muslim Youth Have Their Own Minds
According to Asri, the belief of young Malays in Islam is not fragile. On the contrary, they just have different views on some Islamic issues from the Malay society. "It is not that they don't believe in Islam. They are just sceptical of the Islam that the people of their race have tried to uphold. For example, their view on zakat (annual tax @ 2.5 percent on Muslims to aid the poor). After I raised the issue of the management and distribution of zakat, some have joined the discussion," he said.
"In the past, Muslims always believed the zakat management body would manage the money effectively because the authorities had entrusted the task to them. But the zakat has not been managed properly. They have the authority but have lost the people's trust," he added.
He said that the people do not trust the management body but this does not mean they have lost their faith in zakat. They only lost their faith in the institutions that administer religious affairs because these institutions are not capable to handle religious issues effectively.
Asri pointed out that once the Muslims lose their confidence, it is impossible to strengthen the Muslims' faith by solely relying on powers and institution. For example, Muslims used to defend the action of reciting the Koran early in the morning using a loudspeaker. But now some have voiced out their different view. Many young Muslims think it is not appropriate to recite the Koran using a loudspeaker early in the morning because it disrupts others' sleep.
"Although some mainstream media played up the issue and claimed that it is a right of the Muslims and so on, I say 'No, this is not an Islamic way.' Many agree with me, most of them are young people," he said.

Factors Leading to Investment Imbalance Between Malaysia, China

The Malaysia-China Business Council (MCBC) led by former Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam announced that beginning next year, MCBC will, on one hand assist Malaysia's small and medium-size enterprises to invest in the China market, and on the other hand, MCBC will also persuade China's small and medium-size enterprises which are now facing hike in worker wages, to establish up their firms in Malaysia.
However, when we talk about mutual investment between Malaysia and China, there is indeed a big gap. According to the data provided by Chai Xi, the Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia, the Malaysian investment in China is $6.2bil and the Chinese investment in Malaysia is only $0.3bil. Although our Malaysian cabinet ministers, Menteri Besar (chief of state) and chief ministers have repeatedly traveled to China with the aim to recruit more Chinese investors to Malaysia; and although the Chinese authority has also mentioned that Malaysia is a ‘qualified investment country’ and that the Chinese authority has also encouraged Chinese enterprises to invest in Malaysia, but the Chinese investment capital is still not forthcoming. It has not yet landed on the Malaysian ground but only wondering around the Malaysian border.
In response, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) MP (Member of Parliament) for Kota Belud, became angry and wanted the Malaysian Government to stop going to China to promote trade opportunities in Malaysia. He said that since the enterprises in China are not interested to invest overseas, it will be a waste of time and money for the Malaysian Government trying to urge the Chinese enterprises to come over to Malaysia.
However, according to Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia Chai Xi's statement, as of 2010 there are already 12,000 Chinese funded corporations establishing as many as 13,000 companies overseas. These overseas Chinese corporations are spread through more than 170 countries in different regions. From such statistics, it is not at all true to say that the Chinese businesses and enterprises are not interested to venture and expand their business bases overseas. In fact, under China's current trade policy which put a lot of emphasis on wanting the domestic enterprises to ‘go out’ from China, we can expect more capital fund from China to continue flowing out from China in the coming years. It is thus up to Malaysia to see if we can attract Chinese enterprises to invest in Malaysia.
Malaysian Attitude Toward Chinese Investors
Why on earth then the Chinese businesses are willing to go to the other far end of the globe and invest in South America and are also willing to invest in African countries which have poorer basic infrastructure than Malaysia? Why should the Chinese investors avoid putting their investment in Malaysia, a country which is much nearer to China than other countries mentioned? Instead of carrying out any further argument with UMNO MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan, it might be better for Malaysia to reflect our attitude toward the Chinese investors.
In response, Chai Xi, the Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia commented that Malaysia's economic policy seems to have opened but in fact it is not opened.
Perhaps Ambassador Chai Xi's remarks can be difficult for investors from Europe, Japan and the United States to grasp the full meaning behind. But to the Chinese investors, Chai Xi's remarks have talked to their hearts. This is because Chinese investors can sense that the Malaysian Government has taken an ambiguous attitude and resisted the coming of the enterprises and corporations from China although Malaysia's official policy says that the country will welcome Chinese investors to Malaysia. The Chinese enterprises can sense that although the Malaysian Government has tried very hard to recruit Chinese investors to Malaysia, but the administrative system of the Malaysian Government has made their applications to do business and to invest their capital in Malaysia difficult. Many Malaysian government officials have taken the approach of ‘putting the application aside while waiting for the authority to approve.’ Moreover, the administrative section of the Malaysian Government has also given the Chinese investors too many excuses of why their applications for business cannot be approved earlier than expected. In the end such attitude of the Malaysian government officials ended up given the Chinese investors an impression that Malaysia really does not care much about foreign investment coming from China. Very often, the attitude of Malaysian government officials has made the Chinese investors come to realize the hard fact that it is difficult for them to doing business and invest their fund in Malaysia. In the end, many Chinese investors walk away and invest in other countries.
Engineering Projects
From what we observe, there are indeed some Malaysians who have adopted a sensitive attitude toward the flow of Chinese capital fund to Malaysia or toward the engineering projects tendered by the Chinese-funded corporations. The sensitivity of these people toward Chinese investors can even reach the stage of rejecting Chinese investment in Malaysia. In the end, these people used all kinds of measures to resist the investment coming from China. Certain sector of the Malaysian society also resists the engineering projects the Chinese funded corporations have openly expressed interest. These people almost always hold the views that any projects with the involvement of Chinese enterprises are ‘no good.’
For example, before the Second Penang Bridge Project participated by China Harbor Engineering Co Ltd has even begun the construction, some sector in the Malaysian society has already said that it was not right for the Chinese corporation to bring in 200 engineers from China to do the construction work. They said such action taken by the Chinese corporation will deprive the employment opportunities of Malaysian engineers. But in actual fact, such an allegation on the China Harbor Engineering Co Ltd is baseless. The rumor was spread by certain sector or people who are extremely sensitive to any investment coming from China.
China-Funded Corporations To Invest in Malaysia
Another example was that when government-linked Urban Development Authority (UDA) Holdings wanted to carry out the ‘Bukit Bintang City’ re-development project, China's Everbright International Construction Engineering Corporation (EICEC) has offered the best business deal to the UDA Holding by funding of this engineering work fully. While the success rate of EICEC in tendering this government engineering work then was almost certain, some sector of the Malaysian society has immediately attacked the UDA Holding for forgetting its responsibility as a government-linked corporation. They said UDA Holdings has ignored the interest of the bumiputera (indigenous people, the Malays). In the end, not only the executive chairman of the UDA Holdings suffered critical attack by certain sector, these people even wanted the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to carry out investigation on him. Such a dilemma is hardly encountered by other foreign investors in the country.
In this regard, we should not say that the businesses and enterprises from China are not interested to invest in Malaysia. Instead, we should come to the conclusion that it is because certain people in the Malaysian society are unwilling to accept the investment coming from China. These people made deliberate attempt to make Chinese investors to Malaysia difficult. As a result the Chinese investors have now taken a difficult attitude toward investing their money in Malaysia. This attitude is that they will respect Malaysia's trade and investment policy but they will not want to put their investment here.
China's Overseas Investment Capital
In any case, it is important for Malaysians to acknowledge the fact that China has already emerged as a major economic body in the world. It is inevitable that the massive Chinese investment capital will overflow overseas. It is also inevitable that in the coming years, the strength of the Chinese investment capital to other countries will be stronger than that Japan, Europe and the United States.
Whether Malaysia can share the cake of China's overseas investment capital; and whether if we want to accept the fact that the continual growth of China's economy can indeed benefit Malaysia or not will depend on the mentality of certain group toward China and the Chinese investors to Malaysia.