By some forgotten rationale we are allowed to be fools mostly in April. Then there is May. Should we succumb to foolishness thereafter, there is always, we hope, a time for change after that, and after that, and after that. Optimism is celebrated in this way.

Sharons Operation Defensive Shield of April 3. The untrammelled passage of the Barisan Nasional election laws in Parliament (with some very indefensible provisions) on April 8. Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Chor Chee Heungs warning of action against the civil disobedience of the Kamunting ISA 6 for hunger striking from April 10. The announcement that Suhakams Anuar Zainal Abidin and Mehrun Siraj are denied a second term of office. These are just some of Aprils folly.

April has not yet ended of course. We are expected to put up with the April 12 no-speech-on-Islam-unless-approved media directive of Abdul Hamid Othman, the religious adviser to the present government. The post of religious adviser is currently an unelected one, relegating its holder, the chief alim of the ulama (wise head of Muslim scholars) in the service of the government.

Abim (Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement), fresh from its jaunt with opposition party politics in Keadilan, renewed the call for the unity talks between PAS and Umno. Abim was also one of the supporters of the PUM (Malaysian Muslim Scholars Association) memorandum to the Conference of Rulers.

Abim proposed that the unity talk between PAS and Umno includes Malay and Muslim NGOs. As Malay is defined in the Federal Constitution, as one professing the religion of Islam, Abims stress on Malay and Muslim leads one to speculate among other things, on Abims seriousness of the exclusivity of participation in the proposed unity discussions.

Abim intends participation of all Malays who are Muslims only (yes, dear reader, there are Malays who are not Muslims in this country, there is a record of one Malay Christian prosecuted in Operasi Lallang as posing a threat to national security) and all Muslims of other ethnic groups which may include Orang Asli and Orang Asal who may be Muslims.

Perplexing definitions

Orang Asli are not bumiputra as we know and Orang Asal have bumiputra status on Malaysia Day (Sept 16, 1963) but are legally referred to as the Natives of Sabah and Sarawak in the Federal Constitution. Bumiputra is not a legally defined term, being born of political expediency in 1969.

As born Muslims and converts to Islam have great difficulty under our present laws in officially leaving Islam to profess another faith or none at all, all shades of Muslims of whatever birth or persuasion including Shiah Muslims (several of whom have been periodically detained for national security reasons under the ISA), should be free to participate in the unity discussions.

There are grey areas. What about Muslims in the deviant list of Pusat Islam and the chief alim? Are they to be excepted? This is debatable of course. There has been no prosecution. These alleged deviants are being closely monitored by the state.

I wonder if the government files on deviants would have categories like wait-and-see and soon-to-be-prosecuted under state Syariah laws? The latter may well include the writers accused by PUM to have denigrated Islam and the ulama.

Do we wonder then under which columns and categories, the unlucky Malay/Muslim beauty queens and participants of beauty pageants lie? Would the Malay/Muslim male patrons of the incident at The Ship whom Muslim religious officials did not prosecute be kosher? But I guess not the Malay/Muslim female entertainer at The Ship? If we remember she was persecuted under the Selangor state Syariah law under an insulting Islam provision and the said men patrons went scot-free.

Moral police

This takes me way back when I was teaching law in the International Islamic University when it was still in Petaling Jaya. Young women with teddy bears (sent mostly by loving and anxious parents) are viewed by student monitors (read moral police) under the direction of the then Dean of Student Affairs, as bordering on shirk (polytheism).

Academics concerned with moral policing in campus are alleged to be lacking in tawhid (lit. the unity of God) and monitored. Moral policing is part and parcel of campus discipline. Anyway the tata-tertib (discipline) provisions of the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA) and similar laws are vague enough to allow anything to be read into it, at the discretion of university administrators of course.

What kinds of Muslims are possible polytheists? Wayward? They have about an average grace period of three months rehabilitation under some state laws (once legal action is taken) to return to the true path of Islam. This reprieve is available to all not-real Muslims (this is my own term because the legalese is too much to bear). Before this brainwave provision, those of us straying from the path for good have to steal away to foreign lands. Now this law will afford us the opportunity to realise our follies and safeguard our residence in the tanah tumpah darah (the land of our birth).

Will ex-Darul Arqam members be eligible to attend? Probably, because their leader had confessed over national television after being detained under the ISA, that he had led Muslims astray and they have all disbanded and are integrated into society again.

Shame and modesty

How about shameless Muslim women who are not clad in the Islamic dress of modesty? And shameless Malay and Muslim women and men supporting Eve Enslers play, The Vagina Monologues which was banned by City Hall upon a complaint by ulama in Kedah? There was some initial confusion that it was the Malay word for vagina that was viewed as obscene.

I could go on ad infinitum ad nauseum. I beg the indulgence of my readers and promise to get to more serious matters in due course.

This April-ese diatribe on the state of Muslim-ness, has perhaps sown a biji saga (saga seed) of confusion in right-thinking malaysiakini readers. However, we are still in April and I believe a little confusion is always a good thing.

It is nevertheless an erstwhile exercise to seriously consider the question of who is confusing us on the issue of unity of Malays and Muslims with laws, policies, guidelines and directives. Macam kita tak baca punya orang (As if were illiterates), as my non-English speaking elders would say.

Note: Title by kind permission of Singapore poet and playwright Alfian Saat who should not face any kind of persecution, now or in the future in the island republic or across the causeway for this act of kindness.

SALBIAH AHMAD is a lawyer and an independent researcher. To answer all recent queries, she is no longer affiliated to Sisters in Islam as of July 1997. MALAYA! as the name for this column was inspired by the meaning of "Malaya" in Tagalog which means freedom. The events at the end of 1998 in KL offer a new inspiration. MALAYA! takes on the process of reclaiming the many facets of independence.