PROPERTY
In the local context, it is the "petty and rational tyrant" who is primarily responsible for keeping extremists and potential irrational terrorists in check. It is precisely because of the presence of extremism that a rational tyrant is needed for order and stability.
True, the net of the ISA had been cast before the World Trade Center attack but the events on Sept 11 only served to vindicate its preventive and pre-emptive role!
One could ask whether allegations that "members of at least one political party are veering towards militancy" were yet another of the Machiavellian machinations against a popular political party by the rational tyrant under the guise of sandiwara.
Although the party has denied endorsing militancy, it did not, however, deny that some of its members (including the son of one of its leaders) had been trained by and were fighting alongside with the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Some of the Mujahideen turned Taliban in 1996 are now providing safe harbour to Osama bin Laden.
The same political party reportedly declared that it would be the duty of the devout to assist Afghanistan in whatever way in its jihad. The danger of such a clarion call is that it may be construed as a call to militancy.
In the light of this, how are we, the ordinary folks, to remain sceptical of claims that the political party and its ideology attract and spawn radical militants - even though this is officially not the party's position?
One recalls that this country has seen the likes of communists, Ibrahim Libya, Al-Arqam and Al-Ma'unah. And recently, 10 people were allegedly linked to the militant Malaysian Mujahideen Group (KMM) and another six were allegedly responsible for a spate of bank robberies, the bombing of a church and a temple, and the murder of a BN state assembly representative.
As WA Hawley of US ('Future of Islam at stake', Sept 28) said, the conflict played out here was not only about "US foreign policy, flawed as it was, but the struggle for the soul of one of the world's great religions".
He added, "Malaysians are a part of this battle, like it or not. And in a deeper sense, Malaysians have more influence over the long-term outcome of the conflict than Americans can ever have. America should, can, and will, hunt down and kill the terrorists, but we can't shape the future of Islam."
At this juncture, it is useful to distinguish between the fundamentals of the religion based on compassion, justice and peace from fundamentalism itself (not a very accurate expression but popularly used) to describe the brand of religio-political ideology that is rigid, aggressive and politically activist as practised by some Middle Eastern states.
Though the political party referred to is hardly as extremist or activist as that which is practised in Afghanistan or Libya, it, however, espouses some shared fundamentalist norms such as the propagation of separate gender queues in supermarkets, the closing of unisex hair salons and Genting casino, and restrictions on women that require them to wear headscarves without lipstick and not to work after 5pm.
Though for now it is tolerant of the religious and cultural practices of other communities, it is a political party whose ideological objective is to ultimately set up a theocratic state based on the sovereignty of God's laws rather than Man's, regardless of the multi-racial, multi-cultural and multi-religious character of the Malaysian society.
No flexibility and compromise exist, nor is expected, in the objective to restructure society on religious laws. The objective goes beyond symbols regarding dressing and personal, social or moral behaviour.
For this reason, even its coalition partner - though united by common bond of opposition to the ruling party - would still deem it imperative after the events of Sept 11 to leave the coalition. Other members, by remaining silent, appear to share the same political and ideological norms.
In the wake of the ban on the KRU concert, the arrest of the three beauty contestants in Selangor and the arrest of singer Azlina Abbas and 25 others for singing in a pub serving alcohol by religious enforcement authorities, who was responsible to put on hold the arbitrary enforcement of religious laws and called on the religious authorities entrusted with interpreting Islamic laws not to act alone, but to consult and include experts in other fields?
Who had called on the religious authorities to focus their future action on more substantive issues such as the problems of incest, rape, domestic violence and drug addiction, instead of the way people dressed?
Who chastised medical interns who had reservations about examining patients with their hands and preferred to use some poking instrument instead?
Who had resisted the call by the aforesaid political party to promulgate hudud laws involving punishments that range from stoning of adulterers, amputation of thieves' hands to decapitations?
In 1999, a Malay lady by the name of Nor'aishah was forcibly detained by her family for converting to another religion. Who had resisted the calls then from some quarters to impose the death penalty on an apostate?
Who has tried to adapt, bridge and reconcile universal values of the religion with the values of modernity, globalism and laissez faire in business to bring about progress and a higher standard of living to this country? Who has tried to inspire his country folk to look ahead at 2020 whilst some others, back at AD 600?
The dominos have fallen first in Iran, then Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Morocco, Algeria, Syria and elsewhere. Compare Malaysia with the chaos in Algeria and Afghanistan, the limited achievements in Iran, Pakistan and Sudan!
Who has been the bulwark against such creeping fundamentalist encroachments and showed a will and toughness to resist or circumvent the domino trend?
Like it or not, it is, in the writer's description, the "petty rational tyrant".
Malaysia, today, is the battlefield of two visions.
The first, a cosmopolitan one based on the secular common laws alongside an Islamisation programme based on relative tolerance of other groups, not just to practise their religions but to continue with their cultural and social habits such as gambling or alcohol consumption in public places otherwise considered undesirable by the official religion.
Then there is development, the Multimedia Super Corridor amongst other mega-technological projects and the world's tallest buildings. In entertainment and cultural places in Kuala Lumpur and major towns, a vibrant cosmopolitan atmosphere prevails.
In socio-cultural terms, women are given equal rights by the constitution.
The other vision is rigid and exclusivist religio-social order of which fatwas (decrees) and laws on private morality as determined by clergy are the order of the day. And there are all kinds of restrictions on personal behaviour, especially on women. Religious precepts embrace all aspects of life, the tenets of which as interpreted by ulamas, are not open to discourse. The source of all laws is conceived divine, its promulgation and interpretation exclusively by the religious clergy and scholars, and its applicability, universal regardless that those subject to it belong to different faiths.
Is this democratic freedom and tolerance?
Will foreign workers skilled in knowledge of the Information Age work in such a cultural milieu? For workers with portable skills choosing to work here, it is not just a matter of job opportunities, and pay, but also of cosmopolitan lifestyle. Otherwise, elsewhere beckons.
Will investors, Americans, Westerners and Japanese continue their investments? Will highly mobile capital funds give us a miss?
Are we to retreat to extreme religiosity and asceticism based on promise of the hereafter as coaxed by that political party, abandon participation in global economy, severe global links and access to best competence, knowledge and skills just because secular and Western countries dominate them, and remain in the backwaters of economic development?
So much is at stake for the future as the two visions collide in a struggle for mastery. It is the way of life at issue here.
Against the backdrop of battle lines drawn across the global scene as well as the local, when more of those involved in militant groups and inspired by fundamentalist thinking are arrested ("More arrests of 'militants' to come, warns Dr M", Sept 29), some quarters (Americans excluded) would protest. But many others, including the middle-classes and the business community, will tacitly and quietly support such actions as necessary and count their silent blessings that there is still present a "petty rational tyrant" to deal with militant groups from which pool irrational terrorists are eventually spawned.
Ironically, to many then, the "rational tyrant" may well be the last bastion to preserve higher ideals of civilisation from being subverted by the creeping influence of extremism.