Democracy and Islam in Malaysia

Democracy and Islam in Malaysia

In this short essay, the author will examine the issue of democracy and Islam in Malaysia with a topical literature review. To wit, we will consider whether or not democracy and Islam are compatible in a modern society. This will be considered in various different areas. Unfortunately, the results are mixed at best, with Islam heavily overshadowing the Malaysian social fabric, although the tension between Malays and non-Malays is a second important factor.

Western democracy and banking have made their way into Malaysia. In an article by Samal Abdus, his article examines the performance of Bahrain's interest-free Islamic banks and also the interest-based conventional commercial banks in the post war period after the first Gulf War. This with respect to profitability, liquidity risk and credit risks. He used nine financial ratios in the measurement these performances. His paper concludes that there is not a major difference in the performance between Islamic and conventional banks in the areas of profitability and liquidity. However, his study finds that there were significant difference in credit performance (Samad 2004, 1-2).

In an article by Tristan James Mabry, he reviews scholar Ernest Gellner's views upon the development of Western civil society and contrasts this dually with the failed Marxist

experiment and Islamic fundamentalism. Further, he reviews Gellner's views on nationalism and industrialization as the structural catalyst of the modern social orders. For Gellner, Muslim society is unique in how it synchronizes societal culture and Islamic faith. Islam is divided into historical and internal divisions and into High and Low versions as they react to modernity by their generation of a High Muslim culture in as part of a worldwide nation of Islam. It further looks at the contradiction of the Islamic view with which ethnicity over religion in the development of a national identity. Finally, he considers the relationship of Islam to modernization in the rapidly industrializing society of Malaysia is in contrast to Gellner's model (Mabry 1998, 64).

The article by a.B. Shamsul consists of a critique of ethnicity theories that are based upon essentialism which have been adopted by historians in mainstream Malaysian historiographies in their efforts to explain the formation of "Malay-Malayness." He instead proposes that Malay ethnicity is not am innate, but rather a learned or constructed idea. Malay-Malayness has been created due to intersecting historical, social and cultural factors at a singular moment in a culture's life and history. For Shamsul, Malay-Malayness is a constructed a colonial memory and it has been subsequently adopted uncritically by historians in the environment of postcolonial Malaysia by both Malays and non-Malays (Shamsul 2001, 355).

In the study by Aziz and Shamsul, it is pointed out that Islam in Malaysia has gone through a long and complex process that was involved in an interaction with the three major world civilizations (Indian, Chinese and European) and two colonial systems (Dutch and British) during which many aspects of its practices were reconfigured. This paper provides a brief critical survey of the evolution of the said embedization process during which Islam

and the Muslims in Malaysia were moulded by a series of sociological realities, namely plural society, secularism and modernity. This has resulted in the creation of 'moderate' Islam in Malaysia that is quite different from the fundamentalist image of Islam profiled in the contemporary worldwide discourse on global Islam

(Aziz et al. 2004, 341).

In a study by Andrew Harding, the emergence of the Islamic party PAS as a political force in Malaysia, and its demand for an Islamic state has given rise to new debates about the nature of the Islamic state. It has also given rise to debate concerning the possible the article examines the growing the relationship Harding argues that a definition of 'Islamic state' is impossible. He goes on to outline the positive He that concludes that, while a peaceful solution to the problem of Islam and constitutionalism is by no means impossible such a solution is fraught with both political difficulty and intellectual confusion (Harding 2002, 154 -- 155)

In a study by Muhammad Syukryi Salleh, the Malaysian Pan-Islamic Party (PAS) -led government from Without political power, PAS believes, not only an establishment of an Islamic State is impossible, but the execution of the laws of Allah that binds the complete Islamic way of life would also be unachievable. In the State of Kelantan, the ideal of having the governing but this is inadequate. The PAS-led

Firstly, the realities that are related to external factors, from outside the Party, and secondly to internal factors, from within the Party and the PAS-led government themselves. In the former, one witnessed the role of This was especially evident through its Federal Development

Department that was established in the State, in interrupting the endeavors undertaken by the PAS-led government. In the latter, PAS is suffering from at least five realities, that is, leadership identity crisis, lack of practical experience and expertise, the existence of unmotivated civil servants, absence of either a blueprint or a proper operational guideline and its refusal to welcome help from other sympathized Islamic movements. Consequently, Beside these shortcomings, the Kelantanese

have certainly proven to be at least an attempt to determine their own lifestyles according to their character which culminates in the existence of the beauty of Islam

already partly felt in the State, with relatively more peacefulness, tranquility and friendly atmosphere (ibid., 235-236).

In Ufen's study, Malaysia's electoral authoritarian system has been increasingly coming under increasing pressure. The indicators of this have been the metamorphosis of the opposition forces since

1998. Particularly, the results of the 2008 parliamentary elections indicated this.

In the years 1957 until 1998, political party opposition in Malaysia was fragmented. The initial transformation of the political parties in the radical opposition began at the height of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. This came after a major conflict within the ruling United Malays

National Party in 1998. However, the regime was able to weaken the opposition, resulting in its poor performance in the 2004 elections.