As for this topic, please refer to my previous small essay in Japanese(http://jams92.org/pdf/NL24/24(06)_tsunashima.pdf). Dr. Mahathir has changed his political rhetoric only. It is a game of words. (Lily)
Malay Mail Online（http://www.themalaymailonline.com）
(1)Secular or Islamic state? Neither, says Dr M,19 June 2014
KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who once declared Malaysia to be an Islamic country, now says it is neither an Islamic nor a secular state, but just an “ordinary state” with Islam as the official religion.
The former prime minister was reported by English daily The Star today as saying that although Malaysia has been proclaimed as an Islamic country before, it did not mean that measure were needed to “make it Islamic”.
“We are just an ordinary state that recognises Islam as the official religion of the country, and we practise things that are not against the religion of Islam,” Dr Mahathir told The Star yesterday.
“We have declared ourself (sic) as an Islamic state before, but that does not mean that we have to do all kinds of other things to make it Islamic. There are so many Islamic states that don’t even declare they are Islamic and they don’t practise many of the things that are supposed to be associated with Islamic states,” he added.
The veteran politician also stressed that the Federal Constitution does not mention that Malaysia is a secular state.
“We never said this is a secular state either,” said Dr Mahathir.
The country’s longest-serving prime minister declared in 2001 that Malaysia is an Islamic state and went on to say in 2002 that Malaysia is an Islamic fundamentalist state.
Malaysia’s founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman, however, said in Parliament in 1958: “I would like to make clear that this country is not an Islamic State as it is generally understood, we merely provided that Islam shall be the official religion of the State”.
The debate over whether Malaysia - which has a dual track legal system of civil and shariah courts - is an Islamic or secular state arose again recently after a minister said last Monday that Malaysia is not the latter.
Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of Islamic affairs, said his position was reinforced by several constitutional provisions, including Article 3 which places Islam as the religion of the federation.
Jamil Khir’s assertion works against a key argument against the implementation of hudud here, although he stopped short of declaring that Malaysia is an Islamic state.
DAP’s Sibu MP Oscar Ling Chai Yew has said that Malaysia is a secular state as three of the four signatories of the 1963 Malaysia Agreement — Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak — did not have a state religion and this was further reinforced by the 18-point and 20-point agreements drawn up by Sarawak and Sabah respectively.
(2)Three things we learned about: the Islamisation of Malaysia , 20 June 2014
by Justin Ong
KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Malaysia professes to be a multi-racial and multi-cultural federation with Islam as its religion, but there is a mounting movement to turn it simply into an Islamic state.
While defenders of the status quo insist that it is a secular state and Islam’s position is largely decorative, it appears they are fighting a losing battle against the tide of growing Islamisation in the country.
Slowly, but surely, Malaysia is headed down the path where religion permeates not just houses of worship, but all aspects of life.
Here are the three things we learned about the growing Islamisation of Malaysia.
1. The minister of Islamic affairs is more powerful than any other Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom’s official portfolio is minister in charge of Islamic affairs, but it appears that his purview extends far beyond religion.
On Tuesday, he declared that Malaysia was not a secular state, thereby dismantling a key obstacle towards the introduction of more Islamic laws — including the controversial hudud penal code — in the country.
Yesterday, he took it upon himself to reinterpret the parts of the Federal Constitution pertaining to the conversion of children to Islam, effectively reversing a 2009 Cabinet decision that expressly barred parents from unilaterally changing the religion of their children.
In one fell swoop, he has moved the country further down the path towards becoming a full-fledged Islamic state.
But despite the pivotal consequences of his declarations, few save the usual opposition figures have come out to dispute his assertions.
At the rate Jamil Khir is going, both de facto law minister Nancy Shukri and Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail may soon find themselves surplus to requirements.
2. Even the elders are concerned
The growing pervasiveness of religion in the administration is palpable to all, even to former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who famously proclaimed Malaysia to be an Islamic country in September of 2001.
Now, he has come out to say that Malaysia is neither secular nor Islamic, but simply an “ordinary state” that recognises Islam as its religion.
“We are just an ordinary state that recognises Islam as the official religion of the country, and we practise things that are not against the religion of Islam,” Dr Mahathir told The Star on Wednesday.
In the same report, the country’s longest-serving prime minister said that his previous declaration did not require efforts to make the country “more Islamic”.
His stand now appears more in line with the Reid Commission report that said Islam’s position, as the religion of the federation, did not preclude the country from being a secular state.
For Dr Mahathir to come out and contradict himself on the issue suggests the dangers of allowing Malaysia to continue down this path.
3. Religion is a political tool
The creeping Islamisation of the country may appear on the surface to be about religion, but the worrying truth is that it is being allowed to happen by an administration that sees it as a platform to remain in power.
In a recent index of the “Islamicity” of countries, Malaysia came in 33rd — the highest among Islamic countries, admittedly — but also behind the likes of Singapore and even perennial enemy of the Muslims, Israel.
Why did Muslim countries fare as poorly as they did in professor of International Business and International Affairs at George Washington University, Hossein Askari’s “Overall Islamicity Index”?
“If a country, society or community displays characteristics such as unelected, corrupt, oppressive and unjust rulers, inequality before the law, unequal opportunities for human development, absence of freedom of choice (including that of religion), opulence alongside poverty, force and aggression as the instruments of conflict resolution as opposed to dialogue and reconciliation, and, above all, the prevalence of injustice of any kind, it is prima facie evidence that it is not an Islamic community,” Askari explained.
This is readily observable in Malaysia, where the rhetoric of religion waxes and wanes in tandem with elections.
Unfortunately, since 2008, the country has been trapped seemingly in an eternal campaign ostensibly for control of Putrajaya, though increasingly it appears that what is truly at stake is the nation’s soul.
・Copyright © 2014 | The Malay Mail Online
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