As the two biggest Malay-Muslim parties in Malaysia - Umno and PAS - continue to up the ante in the Islamisation race in the country, it appears as if both sides are now trying to discredit each other by making all kinds of claims about their alleged involvement in all sorts of nefarious dealings behind the scenes.

Coming swiftly in the wake of Pemuda Umno allegation that some senior leaders of PAS have attended the meetings of radical Islamist movements in neighbouring Indonesia - PAS has responded by claiming that Umno has had alleged links with communist movements in other parts of the world.

Needless to say, all of this is designed to make the other party look bad: PAS being linked to the so-called threat of global Islamic militancy while Umno being accused of harbouring pro-communist sympathies.

PAS' claim that Umno has links with the global communist movement is based, apparently, o­n some high profile visits by Malaysian politicians to countries like Cuba.

For what it's worth, Cuba today happens to be o­ne of the very few states in South America that seem to possess the testicular fortitude to stand up to the world's o­nly global superpower and hegemon, the United States of America. For this the Cuban government has earned the goodwill and support of many other anti-American movements the world over, including some Islamist movements from the Arab world such as the Hizbullah of Lebanon.

But the mullahs at the helm in PAS today do not seem to appreciate the efforts of Castro and his amigos who have been trying their best to defend the sovereignty and economic independence of their country against the odds.

Never mind the fact that Cuba has been isolated and marginalised thanks to the machinations of the US, which has shown that it will tolerate no opposition or resistance to its global ambitions.

Never mind the fact that despite the odds stacked against them, the people of Cuba have not o­nly managed to keep their embattled economy relatively functioning, they have also managed to develop and maintain o­ne of the best public health and educational systems in the world (which is incidentally worth emulating even by Islamists).

Captives to their own grand logic, PAS' blanket condemnation of Cuba and communism as a whole fails to note the goals and orientation of communism itself and what it seeks to gain in the present climate of growing US cultural, economic and military imperialism.

Not o­nly that, the present generation of do-it-yourself mullahs who run the party seem to have forgotten their own history, and would do well to revisit their own past when PAS was o­nce regarded as the Red Islamist threat in Malaysia.Key role in PRM and Parti Buruh.

Dr Burhanuddin al-Helmy

Though they hardly talk about him today, the leaders of PAS ought to know the name of Dr Burhanuddin al-Helmy by now. He was the third president of PAS (after Dr Abbas Elias) and he led the party between 1956 to 1969.

Burhanuddin bin Mohammad Noor was born o­n Nov 29, 1911 in Changkat Tualang, Kota Bharu, Perak, the son of a Sumatran immigrant. His father, Haji Muhammad Noor, was a Minangkabau alim who taught Tasawuf (rational metaphysics) and also worked as an agriculturist. His mother was a Malaccan woman named Sharifah Zahrah Habib Osman who was herself of Malay-Arab Peranakan descent.

After studying in a number of Madrasahs in Malaya and Sumatra, Burhanuddin continued his education at the famous Aligarh University (1) in India which was then known for his reformist ideas and rationalist approach to Islam that was favoured by its founder, Syed Ahmad Khan.

It was in India that Burhanuddin first came to drink from the well of modernist Muslim thought. At Aligarh he came into contact with modernist Muslim reformers who taught him that the future of Islam and the Muslims did not lie in empty slogans or esoteric formulae as some of the traditionalist ulama claimed.

In 1939, Burhanuddin became a member of the Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) through his associate Mustapha Hussain, and thus joined in the ranks of the radical Malay nationalist movement alongside more radical nationalists such as Ibrahim Yaakob, Ishak Haji Mohammad and Ahmad Boestamam.(2) The radicals of the KMM were keen observers of developments outside the narrow confines of British Malaya. Their role models at the time were the radical nationalist leaders Soekarno and Muhammad Hatta of neighbouring Indonesia.

For Burhanuddin in particular, Soekarno was an enigmatic figure whose appeal lay in his ability to bring together the elements of Islamist, leftist and nationalist thought.

Being himself a progressive Islamist and activist, Burhanuddin was very much a product of the age he lived in. Nationalism, anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism were the burning issues of the day.

In 1955, Burhanuddin himself opened and chaired the Kongres Pemuda Melayu (Malay Youth Congress) that was held in Kuala Lumpur. The anti-colonial mood was sustained by the Bandung Conference organised by Soekarno, which Burhanuddin also attended. Those among the leftist camp were still inclined towards the ideology of Marhaenisme - the socialist-nationalist ideology of the little peasant - as formulated by Soekarno and the radical nationalists of Indonesia.

The doktor concentrated his efforts towards the formation of the first Malay socialist party in the country. This resulted in the creation of Parti Rakyat Malaya (PRM - People's Party of Malaya) in Kuala Lumpur o­n Nov 11, 1955.

PRM was first led by Ahmad Boestamam and most of its members were Malays who were of working class backgrounds. Ishak Haji Muhammad, the other close friend and compatriot of Burhanuddin then formed and led his own party, Parti Buruh (Labour Party) of Malaya.

Unlike PRM, Ishak's PBM also managed to attract a small number of Chinese urban-based workers as well as leftist intellectuals and activists who were schooled in the ideas of Fabian Socialism.

Burhanuddin had played a key role in the formation of both Parti Rakyat and Parti Buruh. He was always in the background, acting as the advisor to both parties and co-ordinating their joint activities.

Yet the doktor remained without a political party of his own to lead. It was o­nly in 1956

that he was offered an opportunity to return to mainstream national politics.

Becomes PAS president

Burhanuddin accepted the offer to become the third president of PAS in December 1956. For him the Islamist struggle then was compatible with the socialist and communist struggle against Western imperialism and colonialism. Writing in the journal Suara Islam in 1957, Burhanuddin stated that:

" Kita dari angkatan PAS akan melancarkan bahtera perjuangan kita menuju pelabuhan cita-cita Islam yang sangat jauh pelayarannya. Kita sama-sama bertolak beriringan aliran-aliran lain dan walaupun nasionalisme dan sosialisme telah sampai, tetapi Islamisme akan berlayar terus, menuju pelabuhan kita: Baldatun Taiyibatun Wa Rabbun Ghaffur ."(3)

For the radical nationalists, Burhanuddin's decision to assume the leadership PAS signalled the emergence of a progressive Islamic party in Malaya. This was spelt out in no uncertain terms in the doktor's own speech of acceptance when he officially took over the presidency of PAS:

In our society today there are three forces forging side by side competing with o­ne another but working closely together against colonialism. These are the forces of nationalism, the forces of Islamism and the forces of socialism. They are not separable from o­ne another but are in fact related to o­ne another.

The common factor in these three forces is their fundamental anti-colonial stand; their common objective being the need to build a free, democratic and sovereign nation. As such, these forces should necessarily work side by side, mutually strengthening o­ne another. Their enemy are the forces of colonialism and imperialism.(4)

In his policy statement that was issued in the same year (1956), Burhanuddin laid down the ideological, political and strategic objectives of the Islamic party that he had come to lead.(5)

Towards the primary political objective of national independence, the doktor argued that he and his party would work with all other political and ideological groupings in the land.

Convinced as he was that neither the conservatives nor the socialists would be able to win independence with the full support of the entire country, Burhanuddin called for the three main ideological streams (the Islamists, nationalists and socialists) to come together.

By doing so he was also echoing Soekarno's attempt to forge the Nasakom coalition of Nasionalisme-Agama-Komunisme (Nationalists-Islamists-Communists) in Indonesia at the same time:

" PAS sanggup bekerjasama dengan apa sahaja golongan, apa saja parti, apa saja aliran dalam masyarakat atas dasar kepentingan kemerdekaan bangsa dan tanahair...

" Perjuangan itu sama besarnya dengan perjuangan yang telah kita pusakai dari datuk-nenek kita menentang penjajahan semenjak kejatuhan empayar Melaka dahulu. Dan sudah tentu perjuangan yang sebesar itu mengkehendaki tenaga yang sebulat-bulatnya dari seluruh rakyat negeri ini, mengkehendaki pengorbanan yang rela dari segenap golongan progressive dalam masyarakat. Tenaga-tenaga nasionalisme, keugamaan dan sosialisme yang sihat dalam masyarakat hasrat kita gembelengkan, kita padukan mulai sekarang untuk merupakan satu tenaga besar demi tugas perjuangan kemerdekaan dan kedaulatan tanahair kita ." (6)

PAS' non-oppositional attitude towards communism and the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) remained constant during the tenure of Burhanuddin and was abundantly clear during the Emergency when British (and later Malayan) troops were engaged in a prolonged and costly war against the communists in the jungles.

Burhanuddin's call for a peaceful resolution of the conflict was also motivated by personal interests that went beyond politics, for many of the Malay leaders of MCP (especially those who led MCP's 10th Malay Regiment) were men who had worked with him during the anti-colonial struggle in Malay organisations like the KMM and PKMM.

Among the more prominent Malay communist leaders whom he knew personally were men like Abdullah Che Det and Rashid Mydin, both of whom had been with the doktor in the failed PKMM experiment.

The doktor's reluctance to endorse the government's policy of all-out war against MCP was therefore understandable under the circumstances.

The Islamist party continued to campaign against the Emergency regulations and the use of military and para-military tactics used by the post-colonial government in the war against the communist insurgents in the countryside.

Though PAS failed to secure a cease-fire or bring about negotiations between the government and the communists through initiatives of its own, it did try to question the government's own propaganda against the communists in general.

PAS' greatest moment

Though such talk of Red Islamism may seem anathema to Islamists today who are more inclined to celebrate their so-called heroes like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar of the Taliban, the leftist inclinations of Burhanuddin and the radical Islamists of PAS in the 1950s and 1960s were more understandable then.

Burhanuddin's contemporaries were Third World intellectuals and leaders like Patrice Lumumba and Kwame Nkrumah. His fate was also similar to theirs: While Lumumba would meet his end at the hands of assassins and Nkrumah would be deposed in a CIA-sponsored coup, the doktor would fall victim to the political realities of the time that divided the world into the Eastern and Western blocs, with little space in between for the discourse of progressive Islam to emerge.

Like that other prominent Islamist intellectual and activist Ali Shariati (7), Burhanuddin tried to analyse, explain and resolve the contradictions of his own Malay-Muslim community through a progressive interpretation of their own traditional culture and belief-system that was rooted in Islam.

(Interestingly, both men were also drawn to Sufism [Islamic mysticism], a fact that was kept secret from many of their followers.) But fate and history have both been kinder to Ali Shariati who was propelled into the limelight thanks to the outbreak of the Iranian revolution while the

legacy of the doktor has been forgotten by those who came after him.

The fact remains, however, that it was the doktor who had saved the fledgling Islamist party PAS from the brink of disaster and it was he who had given it a sense of direction and purpose when it needed it most in the 1950s and 1960s. During his time, PAS won its first spectacular electoral victory when it came to power in Kelantan and Trengganu during the elections of 1959.

Rather than concentrating o­n the differences between the ideological positions of the Islamists, Nationalists and the Leftists, Burhanuddin preferred to stress the chains of equivalences that bound their projects together. This was why he was so successful in disseminating the message of political Islam to such a broad audience that spanned the entire political spectrum.

His skills at negotiation also helped the party bridge the ideological gap between the Islamists and the Leftists of the Fron Sosialis (Socialist Front) as well. While Muslim leaders in other parts of the Islamic world at the time were openly hostile to the democratic project and other political and ideological systems (King Saud had rejected a draft for a democratic constitution o­n the grounds that the Quran was the oldest constitution in the world, while Ab'ul Al-aa Maudoodi, the leader of the Jamat-e Islami of Pakistan, had declared that "whoever speaks about socialism should have his tongue pulled out"(8)), Burhanuddin realised the practical need to form instrumental alliances with them.

So when the mullahs of PAS today claim that they are a 'pure' Islamic party with a history that is pristine as it is simple, they ought to go back to their own history books.

PAS' greatest moment was when it was under the leadership of progressive Islamists like Burhanuddin al-Helmy, who understood that the struggle of Muslims worldwide was compatible and related to the struggle of other anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements the world over.

Those were the days when o­ne was not ashamed to be called a 'Red Islamist'. And with men like Burhanuddin leading them at the time, the Red Islamists of Malaysia had every reason to be proud of themselves.

Endnotes:

(1) Set up by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in the year 1875, the Muhammadan Anglo-Indian College (Madrasat ul-U'lum Musalmanan) of Aligarh's aim was to create a pool of Muslim reformers who would become the future leaders of the Muslim ummah. The founders of Aligarh regarded the political, economic and socio-cultural subjugation of Muslims under Western colonial rule as o­ne of the biggest obstacles to the revival of the spirit of Islam. Muslims therefore had to grapple with the challenges of modern-day colonialism, and modern education was thought to be o­ne of the keys to progress.

Aligarh's reformist and mujhadid (revivalist) outlook was heavily influenced by Sir Syed's desire to purge the Muslim mind of the corrupting influences of jahiliyyah sectarianism, clan and tribal loyalties, subservience to pre-Islamic beliefs and practices as well as blind emulation of Western culture. In particular he sought to cultivate a progressive, reformist and universalist approach to Islam that would go beyond both narrow sectarianism and the secular ideology of ethno-nationalism.

(2) See: Kamarudin Jaffar, Perjuangan dan Pemikiran Politik Dr Dr Burhanuddin al-Helmy, Akademika, Vol 15. July 1979. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, (UKM) Bangi. Selangor. 1979. (pg 32).

(3) Dr Burhanuddin al-Helmy, writing in Suara Islam, 16 January 1957

(4) Pas Dalam Perjuangan Kemerdekaan, pp 76-77.

(5) See: Dr Burhanuddin al-Helmy, ‘Ucapan Dasar Parti PAS, 1956’. In

Islam dan Sosialisme, Ikraq Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1988.

(6) Ibid, pg 4-5

(7) The Iranian Islamist philosopher and activist Ali Shariati was born o­n Nov 24, 1933. In the 1950s he joined the Nehzat-e Khoda Parastan-e Socialists (Movement of God-Worshipping Socialists) that was founded by Muhamad Nakhshab. Along with many Iranian leftist and Islamist intellectuals, Shariati tacitly supported the goverment of Mohammad Mosaddeq which tried to nationalise Iran's oil industry and protect the local economy from Western capital penetration in 1953.

After Mosaddeq's government was toppled by the coup organised by the Shah (with support from the CIA) in August 1953, Shariati intensified his attacks o­n the government. In 1959, he travelled to Paris to continue his studies there. In1969, his work Eslamshenasi (Islamology) which was based o­n his public lecture notes was finally released. He proposed a reading of traditional Islamic sources - the Quran, Hadith and Sunnah - that was historical and which set the message of the Prophet in a contemporary context.

Shariati interpreted the monotheism of Islam as a movement against social divisions and hierarchies. For him, monotheism was compatible with democracy, egalitarianism and a universal form of humanism that did not recognise boundaries and divisions of race, ethnicity, nationality or class. He attacked the feudal elite, the traditional Ulama as well as the modern capitalist system for creating divisions and hierarchies in society that obstructed the individual's quest for gnosticism (unity with God), freedom and justice.

On May 16, 1977, Shariati, fearing for his life, was forced to leave Iran for exile in London. Shariati died of a heart attack o­n June 18, 1977 at the age of 44. After his death many of his supporters claimed that he was actually killed by SAVAK and Western agents. [For a fuller biographical account of Ali Shariati’s life and work, see: Ali Rahnema, An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Shariati. I B Tauris press, London. 1998.]