The silence of the ulama

The Muslim New Year has just begun and already I have a confession to make. I did not have any New Year wish to mark its arrival.

I could have at least wish all my Muslim brothers Happy New Year but I did not. What I have done is to write this article, heavy with a spirit of despondence.

There's a reason for this of course, and it is the following:

It is that the last one year has seen some of the worse developments in our social, political and economic history.

I would love listing them down one by one, but this would be superfluous or even frivolous.

Let me just mention a few major ones, those still burning in the Malaysian polity:

• The breakdown of public confidence in the government, the judiciary, police, the Attorney-General's office;

• The revelation of more and more cases of corruption involving higher and higher ranks as well as increasing amounts and the worsening ranking of corruption index;

• The drying up of foreign investment;

• The fleeing of local capital to other countries;

• Rising prices and dropping incomes; and,

• The fleeing of bright and trained brains abroad.

Many concerned academics, scholars and other knowledgeable people and commentators and citizens have pointed out that these regressions have developed with the Ketuanan Melayu leadership.

Bigotry's rule proving ruinous

When it took up the reins of power it used the perennial Malay ideology untuk agama bangsa dan negara (for religion, race and nation) as its battle cry.

To put it emphatically the country is in a very bad shape because of the racist and theological governing policies and platforms of the Ketuanan Melayu leadership.

In other words the country has been run by bigots and racists along emotive, subjective and non-rational lines.

Human history on the other hand tells us a country is best run on the principles of human rights and freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.

Most countries that do well (otherwise known as advanced countries) by going along the platform of freedom and democracy.

Here's my message: the leaders are firm in their wish to convert the country into an Islamic state. I fail to understand the merit of such vision, though shall not touch upon this issue, not this time.

My concern is that if at all we wish to see an Islamic state developing within our shores, then the active propagators of this vision should be working very hard already towards establishing the right parameters while waiting for its implementation.

Oh, they have come up with public policies and their implementations like the following:

• They dig up dead bodies and then rebury them in accordance with Muslim rites;

• They catch Kartina Shukarnor for drinking beer in public and then gave her a fine and caning as punishment;

• T hey accuse people like Raja Petra Kamarudin ( below ) of insulting Islam;

• They catch Dr Asri Zainal Abidin for teaching without a tauliah or accreditation even if he holds a doctorate on Islamic studies and a former mufti to boot;

• They hound independent minded people like Ayah Pin and Lina Joyl;

• They discourage or arrest young lovers for showing affection in public;

• They'd catch unmarried couples living together under khalwat law, and then force them to marry;

• They coerce a non-Muslim to convert to Islam before he or she can marry his intended Muslim husband or wife;

• They then absolutely refuse the converted party to revert to his original religion should the marriage end in divorce;

• They make young couples pass what would be termed as a matrimonial test before they can get married; and,

• They go all out to ensure Muslims eat halal food.

By these actions the ulamas say they wish to maintain high moral standards and merely implementing religious laws.

But it is patently clear that these involve human rights principles so are personal and almost petty in nature; though not petty to people who suffer for it like Kartina and Raja Petra.

Where the ulamas miss out

I mean, personal items like those mentioned above should actually be left to the individual concerned.

This could leave the ulamas to delve with other more pertinent issues directly relevant to the agenda of running a country.

I am a believer in the fact that there must be more than just human rights issues in Islamic law to which the ulamas must at least begin to disseminate to the Malaysian public.

The ulamas should for example at least begin to address other issues affecting the well-being of the nation.

They could address the issue listed above, viz., the breaking down of institutions (like how to stop the judiciary's loss of credibility), the worsening corruption index (how to deal with corrupt topmost level Ketuanan Melayu figures?), drying investments, high number of emigration.

Then there is the taking of Petronas money to build super-duper multi-billion projects like Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, the KLCC, the Bakun Dam, just to mention a few?

Don't the ulamas insist in cost and benefit studies be made first before construction takes place?

Lately numerous citizens have exposed the fact that many prominent figures have been remitting money abroad, breaking the law in the process - how do the ulamas deal with this point?

They should delve into the ideal Islamic tax structure, Islamic immigration rules, Islamic customs regime, Islamic scholarship awards, and perhaps Islamic health care, Islamic bridge, Islamic air travel; the list goes on.

Then there is there are the modern day issues facing the nation: high crime rate, pollution, widening schism among the various ethnic groups, higher inflation, high rate of unemployment among Malay graduates.

What about global warming, a shrinking world, more intense world competition, depleting oil resource. All these are crying out for attention.

But, nothing. Nothing but silence from the ulamas, the logical successors for tackling these issues with the advent of Islamisation.

It is as though these issues are worldly issues and do not concern them.

But saying nothing can mean many things: the ulamas don't know, don't want to know; they don't care or don't want to care.

Or, they know but are bereft of principles and courage to pursue such powerful issues. They do not have the courage of their convictions.

Who are these ulamas? They are the religious leaders, who have acquired a bit more knowledge on Islam than the average person.

Excuses no longer tenable

They then hide behind the glory and greatness of Prophet Mohammad, and claim having direct instruction or wisdom from him.

The ulamas then capitalize on this ‘special' linkage and then claim that mere mortals should not discuss and debate about Islam, that only they can handle all such important matters.

A person is judged not by what he thinks he can do, but by his actions. So while the ulamas might be having the illusion of grandeur and near-divinity, their actions say otherwise.

I am very sad, because the actions or the ulamas thus far has shown the mindset of the traditional Islamic education they have received and nurtured with throughout their lives.

For example, they are other-worldly in their approach, while they should be more modern.

They aim for people to conform to the dictates of Islam when the individual should develop his own individuality and personality.

The ulamas look to the past as a period of perfection and expound present day Muslims to emulate and approximate the past.

Now, looking to the past might yield some wisdom, but only to a short extent. In this modern world we have to run in order to stay still, and to do this we have to focus our attention to the future.

The ulamas do not see this point at all.

Obviously when the ulamas are ignorant of these issues, and by the look of things that is a fair statement to make, just how are they going to manage the country in the years ahead?

Issues like urban migration, overcrowding of cities like Kuala Lumpur and Penang , cutting down of forests, extinction of animals like the orangutan, women's role in society (why is Sisters in Islam being marginalized), pollution (again), modern advances in science and technology, super powerful computers, space travels are all with us today and making modern life more and more complex.

A more complex world needs complex solutions and the ulamas are dead silent on them.

I do not think they have any idea in providing any solution apart from saying the ubiquitous "just have patience, and pray hard to God to provide them." Thus my despondence on this Muslim New Year day.

Next week or so will be Christmas and mainly after that the regular New Year will be with us. I look forward to this New Year even if the Ketuanan Melayu leadership including the ulamas do not offer any solutions to the country's woes.

I look forward to the comments and suggestions to be made by the blogging Internet community and fraternity on how world problems should be solved.

This fraternity may or may not be right with their views. But they are open about it, and have the courage of their convictions to express and share it. They challenge the mind to evaluate and debate their ideas.

For this I take this opportunity to wish the blogging community and all peace-loving and fair-minded Malaysians Happy New Year! And I thank Malaysiakini for providing me with the avenue and vehicle to express this sentiment.

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AB SULAIMAN is an observer of human traits and foibles, especially within the context of religion and culture.

As a liberal, he marvels at the way orthodoxy fights to maintain its credibility in a devilishly fast-changing world.

He hopes to provide some understanding to the issues at hand and wherever possible, suggest some solutions.