Why enlist foreign ulamas who are ignorant of Malaysian politics to proclaim his innocence? Why not hire foreign video experts who are professional and impartial to prove his innocence? Why not sue the individuals responsible for the video for defamation if he was innocent of the act portrayed in it?
by Syed Mohd Salim via e-mail
Humans have always been beset by the existentialist questions: Where do I come from? Where am I going? Why am I here?
Religions exist to provide the answers and to comfort the beleaguered. The need for religion is so real that the propensity for religion is programmed in the human genes. Religion is the basis for altruism, the critical factor in the evolution of humans as social animals. Religion is sacred.
Procreation is the sole mechanism for the evolution of the species. Since the advent of sexual reproduction as a means of procreation, organisms have striven to be the alpha male or the alpha female. This is the best strategy to ensure maximum opportunities for the replication of one's genes. Procreation is a natural phenomenon and it is values-free. It is the drive to be the alpha male or female, "red in tooth and claw", that is profane.
The line between the sacred and the profane is blurred in Malaysian politics today. Religion is readily abused in the quest to be the alpha-male, alpha-group, alpha-race. Religious issues are manipulated to gain or maintain power.
There are no qualms in oppressing one religion to get the support of the adherents of another. The various religions are kept apart and made to be wary of each other, even to the point of mounting "crusades" against another. The classic case of divide-and-rule.
Even more insidious than religion being used as a tool to maintain power but integral to that phenomenon is the role of religious charlatans in politics. These are politicians who use religious platforms to get support. In the Malaysian context, unscrupulous politicians use Islam to gain support from Muslims who form the majority population in the country.
The epitome of such politicians is Anwar Ibrahim. He rose to prominence through ABIM, an Islamic youth movement. He later joined UMNO and in a matter of eleven years became deputy president of the party, a sure-fire path to be the prime minister. While in the government, he engineered a radical Islamisation policy to politically outflank PAS. Since his ouster from the government in 1998, he maintains a group of Islamists as core supporters.
Anwar always portrays the image of a pious Muslim. He quotes Quranic verses in his speeches and draws analogies from the Islamic Traditions to sell his agenda. He gained recognition from the international community by grandstanding on Islamic issues.
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| Anwar Ibrahim with Yusuf Qaradawi |
The roadshows are basically religious gatherings with solat hajat (special prayers), tazkirah (sermons) and ceramahs (speeches) laced with quotes from the Quran and hadiths (sayings of the Prophet) where Anwar proclaims his innocence while guised in the Islamic cloak. He recruits ulamas (religious scholars), local and foreign, to prop up his Islamic stature.
Why enlist foreign ulamas who are ignorant of Malaysian politics to proclaim his innocence? Why not hire foreign video experts who are professional and impartial to prove his innocence? Why not sue the individuals responsible for the video for defamation if he was innocent of the act portrayed in it?
It is time Malaysians differentiate the sacred from the profane in Malaysian politics, lest "religion becomes the refuge of the scoundrel".
SYED MOHD SALIM SYED MOHD BAKAR
