The Governance of Religious Diversity in Malaysia

THE GOVERNANCE OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
MORE OR LESS SECULARISM?
10-12 June 2015
SESSION:
THE GOVERNANCE OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY IN THE PUBLIC SPACE: PERSPECTIVES FROM ASIA
THE GOVERNANCE OF RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY IN MALAYSIA: EVOLVING
CONTESTATIONS IN A ‘PLURAL SOCIETY’
Wan Zawawi Ibrahim | University of Malaysia/ University of Brunei
AND
EMERGING
The paper examines the evolving development and contestations of Malaysian ‘plural
society’ in relation to the governance of its religious diversity from its inception as an
independent nation-state to the current era of Post-Mahathirism and globalisation.
Legally, the Malaysian constitution has always been acknowledged as secular, and that
whilst Islam is its official religion, Malaysia is not an Islamic state, in which the rights of
non-Muslims’ religious practices are constitutionally protected. For a long time, Malaysia
takes pride in being a melting pot of different cultures, ethnicities and religions, coexisting under a secular sphere. Traditionally the contestation over Islam took place in the
arena of political parties, e.g between the ruling Malay party, UMNO and the Islamic
party, PAS. But of late, in the Post-Mahathir era, specifically under the political
leadership of Najib Razak, certain ‘critical points’ of contestation have emerged in the
legalscape of Malaysian society, involving several cases which invoke the constitutional
rights to religious freedom, raising pertinent questions as to the boundaries of religious
freedom for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Underlying these tensions are the
alleged ‘ambiguity’ of the Federal Constitution, the ‘reluctance’ of the judiciary (civil
courts) ‘to protect the religious freedom of minorities’, giving way to the ‘ostensibly
overzealous arbitrary approach by the Syariah courts’. The National Fatwa Council has
also joined the fray by further narrowing down the space of social freedom in the country,
the latest, being the banning of ‘Sisters in Islam’. Some members of the ruling political
party also began to voice support towards elevating the status of Syariah courts beyond
the provision of the Malaysian Constitution. The situation has been further exacerbated
and destabilised by the emergence in civil society of Muslim Malay extremist NGOs
which have been given social space in the current context of Malaysian political
governance to dominate the public discourse. Lately, to counter the political inaction of
the ruling polity and the domination in civil society by the Malay extremists, for the first
time, a group of eminent Malays began to vocalise their critique as ‘moderate Malays’,
with a proposal, among others, that parts of the Syariah laws need to be reviewed to
ensure that they do not intrude on the civil liberties enshrined in the Federal Constitution,
which they advocate should remain as the supreme law of the Malaysian nation-state. The
paper will offer critical lessons on the theme of the governance of religious diversity in
Asia that can be learnt from the Malaysian experience.