It’s no more political, it’s secular vs Islam

With the demise of Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of People’s Action Party of Singapore (PAP), Lim Kit Siang suddenly feels the need to have a coalition government.

Barely a few hours after the death of the towering figure who many believe to be DAP’s mentor, Lim Kit Siang (LKS) called for MPs from the government side to ‘defend the constitution’ by joining them and those from PKR in the bid to uphold Malaysia as a secular country. DAP has maintained Malaysian Malaysia concept, a policy which was introduced by Lee Kuan Yew in 1965.

This came, understandably as a response to the Kelantan Legislative Assembly that passed the Shariah Criminal Code II (1993) on 19th March 2015 with a resounding support from 43 out of 44 state assemblymen from BOTH PAS and UMNO.

Hudud may not be the real factor that triggered LKS panic button, rather it was the successful of both Malay parties to agree with one another and for once seemed to be uniting the Malays for a cause so detrimental to DAP and the proponents of a secular Malaysia. They almost couldn’t believe that UMNO would have agreed to that, and keep harping on the same old mantra that “PAS has fallen to the trick of UMNO” , trying to convince many that the Malay Muslims unity is an onerous task which is impossible to attain.

The Malays Muslims need to be reminded of that and thus Wong Chin Huat, a fellow at the Penang Institute, in his column in Malaysiakini, quickly pointed out that we need Muslims who rigorously and vigorously defending the ‘secular state of Malaysia’ such as Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa and Dato Noor Farida Ariffin, the chairperson of Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF) and the leader of G25 respectively. This come as no surprise because Penang Institute, a think thank linked to Penang State Government under DAP, is the major collaborator partner with IRF that organised seminars and forums promoting secularism ‘from Islamic point of view’ over the years.

So do we still think this is about politics? With the call to unite to those opposing Hudud, it’s obvious that the real desire of DAP is to have a country similar to our southern neighbour who just lost their founding father, a secular nation.

It’s never about one coalition is better than the other.

And the Mukhlisin, the Mukmineen among the Muslims must be united more than ever to resist this concerted effort.

The Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code, is a small step to what we believe in Al-Maidah verses 44 :

“Indeed, We sent down the Torah, in which was guidance and light. The prophets who submitted [to Allah ] judged by it for the Jews, as did the rabbis and scholars by that with which they were entrusted of the Scripture of Allah , and they were witnesses thereto. So do not fear the people but fear Me, and do not exchange My verses for a small price. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed – then it is those who are the disbelievers.”

Indeed without this episode, we’ll regress to the point of nowhere and be complacent with what the society understand about Shariah.

Secondly, the most valuable lesson is that Islam unites the two long time arch-nemesis. The unity of these parties, places Islam on a higher pedestal of authority, and is one of the best example of Melayu Sepakat, Islam Berdaulat.

Prof Madya Dr Rafidah Hanim Mokhtar
Chief of Information, Wanita ISMA

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