Monday, June 23, 2008

Modus Vivendi

Often Malaysia is described as a plural society, composed of 3 large ethnic groups, Malays, Chinese and Indian. Since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963, politics in Malaysia have been dominated by UMNO which is the backbone of the Coalition government. Thus the government pursued what may be term as "pro-Malay" policies. In the same time, Malaysia has come up with its own plan to resolve problems of inequality and ethnic difference. National Economic Policy (NEP) has been in place since 1971 and certain quarters accused it to have marginalize the minority Chinese and Indians to the status of second class citizens.

Post 8th March have seen political tsunami all over Malaysia. Ignoring BN's rhetoric that "A vote for DAP is a vote for PAS", voters put 82 Opposition MPs into Parliament. Subsequently, five states fell to Opposition, which then formed Pakatan Rakyat and left Barisan Coalition stunned. In Perak, DAP-PKR-PAS coalition formed the state goverment with majority less than 5 seats. DAP having secured all its seat contested in Penang, too formed the Penang state governments in alliance with PKR and PAS. On the other hand, PKR formed the Selangor government with Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim as the Mentri Besar. Kelantan remains with PAS while the newly captured Kedah state have a PAS Mentri Besar, Azizan Abdul Razak.

I came across a new term "kafir harbi" while browsing through some group discussion, which I shall keep the sensitive details for myself.

"Islam telah membagi orang kafir menjadi dua macam, yaitu kafir harbi dan kafir zimmi. Kafir harbi adalah kafir yang sedang terlibat konflik dengan umat Islam sedangkan kafir zimmi adalah kaifr yang terikat perjanjian damai dengan umat Islam." (http://www.syariahonline.com/new_index.php/id/7/cn/7655)

"God welcomes you to be kind those who have not made war against you on account of [your] religion, and have not driven you forth from your homes, that you show them kindness (birr) and deal with them justly; surely God loves the doers of justice. God only forbids you respecting those who made war upon you on account of [your] religion, and drove you forth from your homes and backed up [others] in your expulsion, that you make friends with them, and whoever makes friends with them, these are the unjust." (Quran 60:8)

Some Islamic scholars condemn PAS for working together hand-in-hand with DAP, and PKR which they call "kafir harbi". However, majority lauded the move to form Pakatan Rakyat, calling it a step towards a united Malaysian. It is well known that PAS aims to establish an Islamic country and that of DAP, they wish to be the protector of minority rights and opposed the establishment of Islamic country strongly. PKR is stuck in the middle between two extremes, balancing the balls to keep the alliance intact.

To overcome differences, often we will use the principles of consensus. We seek general round-table agreement to exercise follow-up actions from the decision made. Because achieving consensus require serious and respectful treatment from every group member, we strive on values in common rather stressing on the difference between the beliefs in multicultural Malaysia.

Let's put the heavy issue aside. We need to relax.

On air we have M.A.F.U - Here in My Home.



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2 comments:

Shern Shiou said...

great post wise voice..
I like this a lot.
give everybody a chance and think for others too..

MataBogel said...

nice...btw..for me theres no racial bounding la...orang kene open minded sikit...kl ak ble vote aritu, i go for DAP....haha...