Different drums for Malaysia's opposition
By Ioannis Gatsiounis
KUALA LUMPUR - A rally over the weekend against the Malaysian government's
recent decision to raise fuel prices turned ugly when the lead singer of the
rock band Carburetor Dung exposed the top of his boxer shorts to the crowd.
Rowdy members of the estimated 5,000 audience at Kelana Jaya Stadium where the
rally was held hurled bottles at the band and kicked and punched the singer as
he climbed down from the stage. It would be tempting to pass the incident off
as just another rock show gone haywire if not for what it reveals about the
health of Malaysia's fledgling democracy.
The rally brought together mainly activists and supporters of the
loose coalition of opposition parties known as Pakatan Rakyat (PR), which won
control of an unprecedented five of the federations 13 states at March general
elections. The coalition is visibly led by the multi-racial People's Justice
Party (PKR), with the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the
conservative Islamic party Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) serving as flanks.
The rally's organizers told Asia Times Online that more than just being about
fuel price hikes the event was meant to stress the need for greater
accountability, plurality and freedom in a country ruled for five uninterrupted
decades by the oppressive Barisan National (BN) coalition.
But, as with a number of ostensibly pro-democracy rallies within the last year
here, PAS produced a strong, if not dominant, presence on Sunday. That presence
was felt in the vendor tables leading to the stadium with their pirated jihad
and anti-Semitic videos amid trinkets featuring the PAS logo, Koranic passages,
and images of the party's spiritual leader, Nik Abdul Aziz.
In the past the party had vowed to institute sharia law for Muslims, including
the draconian hudud (criminal) code, should it come to power and has
also supported the death penalty for Muslim apostates. Earlier this week Nik
Aziz announced plans to introduce a new law forcing government workers to pray
five times a day in the northeastern Kelantan state, where he is chief
minister.
In the bleachers was a small but noteworthy presence of Middle Eastern attire -
men in turbans and robes, women with head coverings with only slits for their
eyes. These are, here, the zealous manifestations of those bought and sold on
the eventual establishment of an Islamic state and whose inclinations sway
instinctively toward PAS, the only party in Malaysia promising to deliver that
dream.
(Not only here on earth, but also in the hereafter: Nik Aziz said before the
2004 elections that Malaysians who vote for PAS will go to heaven.)
Yearnings for an Islamic utopia void of haram (forbidden) elements
apparently played a role in Sunday's fracas. According to eyewitness accounts,
most of the instigators during Carburetor Dung's performance appeared to be PAS
supporters, angry with the loud and perceived anti-Islamic music, vulgar lyrics
and suggestive gyrations of the long-haired lead singer, Alak. PKR youth wing
members in blue T-shirts were seen whisking the band to safety.
Violent actors
Of course PAS is not the only political actor to foment unrest in Malaysia's
gathering struggle for political supremacy. The BN's lead party, the United
Malays Nasional Organization (UMNO), mobilized its youth wing to bring mid-day
traffic in Kuala Lumpur to a crawl while they burned flags in front of Western
embassies. The police, an appendage of the BN, beat and fired water cannons at
peaceful protestors during last year's Bersih rally for free and fair
elections.
It's also notable that there are progressive and inclusive elements within PAS.
The United Kingdom-educated Nasharuddin Mat Isa was said to be just this sort
when he was named deputy president of the party following its humiliating
election performance in 2004. Nasharuddin told this correspondent shortly after
the party's embarrassing defeat in the state of Terengganu, "We want to offer a
new kind of strategy which includes more engagement - with NGOs, the
international community, people [in general]. We want to open ourselves to
dialogue with others and understand others."
After Sunday's divisive rally, however, Nasharuddin said he was "quite unhappy"
with the rock music performances. "We were made to understand there would be
light singing. But what happened was the reverse," he was quoted as saying.
If PAS members react violently at a rally, and one of its seemingly progressive
leaders fails to remind the party faithful that others in the diverse
opposition enjoy different types of music and should be allowed to express
those tastes accordingly at communal events, then what can the opposition
coalition expect from PAS moving forward?
PAS joined hands with the DAP and PKR to push for more democratic space, but
the party's strains of intolerance and exclusionary proclivities, both on clear
display last Sunday, suggest the party is using democratic means to pursue an
undemocratic agenda. With PAS now emboldened by its gains in the March
elections, its unclear whether the outreach Nasharuddin spoke of back in 2005
was merely a matter of political expediency.
"PAS could come full circle," said Hishamuddin Rais, who helped organize
Sunday's entertainment and who calmed the agitators with a emotional plea from
the stage. He said he had invited mainstream and marginalized elements fighting
for reform to take part in Sunday's rally because, "The question of tolerance
is important here", and added that it's vital for various groups "to put their
thumbprint on the reformation movement, so that if and when PR comes to power,
they will be used to each other and not be perceived as the enemy".
Sunday's fracas is also a stark reminder that the opposition-led democratic
movement is an incipient, delicate matter in which the notion of tolerance has
not been fully absorbed, but without which the coalition's diversity cannot be
a political asset. PKR is widely seen as the glue that binds the opposition and
its multi-racialism is in theory a worthy building block for egalitarian
reform.
But to work in a country deeply divided along racial and religious lines
accentuated by the current ruling coalition, the opposition party will need to
articulate a manifesto with clearer policies. What, some ask, is the PR's dress
code policy and where does it stand on the recent directive issued by the city
council of Kota Bharu, the capital of Kelantan state, banning Muslim women
employees from wearing lipstick or high heels to work?
Observers note that PKR's de facto leader, Anwar Ibrahim, has sent different
messages to Chinese, Malay and Indian constituencies. That strategy has
short-term merits and helped the opposition secure a record number of states
and seats at the March elections, where the PR won nearly half the national
vote. Yet going forward it could also breed confusion and mistrust, with
supporters falling back on race and religion and the now loosely unified
opposition marching to the beats of different drummers, as they did at last
weekend's rally.
Ioannis Gatsiounis is a frequent contributor to Asia Times Online based
in Malaysia. His new book on the pivotal events before and after Malaysia's
March elections that promise to shape the nation's future, Beyond the
Veneer, has just been published by Monsoon Books.
(Copyright 2008 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
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