COMMENT Ever since Perkasa came into being, I had a knot in my stomach that the idea of a ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ was coming to an end. When this race-based voice was strengthened by Isma as a religious force that seems to have been ‘allowed’ space by the Malay community, I knew for certain that ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ is dead. Kaput. Finito. Habis.

It seems that our leadership is at a total loss in dealing with this ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ question. Many things have been said about the issues of corruption, political strategies of breaking up the races and extremist Islamic stands but what I would like to deal with is what are our roles as the true citizens of Malaysia? It is a fact, to me, that the terrible incident at Low Yat Plaza hails a situation where the fuse to a racial time bomb has already been lit. It is simply a matter of time.

I have said in many private conversations that those who are masterminding this kind of fear-mongering among the races are playing with fire and the nature of that element is that once out of control, it would consume all, including the hand that started it.

As an academic, the many incidents of racial extremism, vandalism and bigotry seem to me to be choreographed by certain unscrupulous individuals in order to execute a restricted and personal political agenda. The best clue to me was that no one until now was hurt. The scuffles that happened in many by-elections are scare tactics that now seem to be part and parcel of our shameful ‘Malaysian culture of election’.

But the Low Yat Plaza incident has changed the situation drastically. The three Chinese Malaysian boys were pulled out of their car and beaten. The three were just there as innocent bystanders and stuck in a traffic jam. If we could ever imagine that these were our own children, how would we feel? Of course many Malays might not feel anything at all simply because “depa tu orang Cina” (they are Chinese).

I do not know what kind of parents these particular Malays are but I, for one, the father of five grown-up children felt frightened like the parents of those three boys.

It is very clear to me that Malaysia, as a political entity is at an impasse. There is no turning back. Some people in Malaysia believe that we should turn the clock back and live like we used to in the ‘good old days’ of the 50s and 60s.

But we must remember three fundamental facts. There were two serious racial incidents in the 60s that throws a spanner at the ‘good old 60s’ idea. Secondly, Islam has undergone many changes in thoughts and actions ever since the Iranian Revolution inspired many to think about the possibility of a ‘political Islam’. And the third fact is the immature way of using the social media.

Need for a new framework

For these reasons, we cannot turn the clock back. The Rukunegara of ‘Kesopanan dan Kesusilaan’ may have been useful once to force the races to respect each other at face value but I think it needs to be strengthened by a new social, political and spiritual framework.

This new framework was non-existent since Merdeka. What we had was a simple social contract to ‘live together at arm’s length’ in suspicious respect and bare tolerance. No more, no less. Our intellectuals, whose salaries are higher than those of chief ministers, have failed to come up with this formula. Why?

Perhaps they are too busy writing high-impact journals as the vice-chancellor wants, or the majority of Malay intellectuals are simply trapped by their own racist mindset as well as an erroneous sense of ‘Islamic purity’. It is a quiet but simple fact that non-Malay academics are too frightened to vocalise their thinking, if any actually did think at all, or perhaps they are also ‘dua kali lima’ intellectuals like their Malay counterparts.

Well, let me be the first to moot out this new framework of a Bangsa Malaysia that would answer our social, political and even spiritual needs. I summed it up in my title.

I am a Muslim first, a Malaysian First and a Malay First. Translated to the citizenry, it may crudely sound as We are our Religious Self, Malaysian Self and Ethnic Self, all in one and one in all.

Too philosophical? Too ‘stupid’? Too far-fetched? ‘Tak boleh pakai langsung’? Siau, aaa? Ini olang gila kaa?

I do not know about other races and religious faith but I can only speak about the Malay  race and the Muslim faith in this context. Malays would always, always, .view themselves as either a Malay first or as a Muslim first. Many Malays do not know what the idea of ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ actually entails. They are just Malays living in a country politically named as ‘Malaysia’. Why?

Because that is what their international passport say, ‘Rakyat Malaysia’ or Malaysian Citizen. It’s quiet funny that when Malays go overseas, to the question of ‘where are you from’, they would smile and say “I am Malaysian”. I have never heard my friends whether when I was studying for six years in  the USA or three years in Scotland reply I am a Melayu or I am a Malay.

The Malays are always ‘Malaysian’ overseas but something happen when they return. They become “I am Melayu”. Perhaps it is their identity card which keeps reminding them that they are ‘Melayu’.

Of course political leaders of certain parties keep reminding them in loud and insolent voices, but why must these Malays believe them? This is a democracy and Malays have been known to vote across racial boundaries. So why must the Malays believe in these religious and racist hype? My answer is that they are not presented with the framework of a Bangsa Malaysia that would put their social and religious mind set at ease.

Their question has always been what is the relationship of Islam and kaum Melayu to the idea of a Bangsa Malaysia? Of course non-Malay citizens have it worst because their religion is being denied to be learnt in public schools. To be ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ seems to be stripping the young of their religious and cultural roots.

Interpretation of the Rukunegara

To me, the Rukunegara has been interpreted by many citizens through the actions of leaders of society that Bangsa Malaysia seems to be Bangsa Melayu First, Bangsa Islam Second and Bangsa Lain Third. The Malays, of course seem fine with this since their race is given prominence and ‘their religion’ is given second prominence and those ‘immigrant societies’ get a well-deserving ‘third place’.

Now, the question is, how is this notion of a Bangsa Malaysia an acceptable interpretation of the Five Principles of the Rukunegara?

Kepercayaan kepada Tuhan (Belief in God).

Kesetiaan kepada Raja dan Negara (Loyalty to Agong and Country)

Keluhuran Perlembagaaan

Kedaulatan Undang-Undang

Kesopanan dan Kesusilaan

Where does it say Islam and Melayu?  Perhaps it is the second principle of Agong and Country which implies directly to Malayness and Islamicness. But I could also argue that the presence of Agong and Country is an historical incidence. It is to give due respect to them. Just like England with its monarchy.

You can’t eliminate hundreds and thousands of years of heritage, unless you have a Communist-like or French-revolution-like event and depose the emperors and monarchs and guillotine them.

So, how can Malays and Muslims accept the new framework of Muslim First, Malaysian First and Malay First? Well, the Malays have to unlearn what was learnt and consider a new way of thinking to reinterpret their lives into a new and exciting adventure.

Like many people on this planet, I am Muslim First. Why? Because no political identity can answer the question of what comes after death. All of us will meet our maker. Which constitution of any country can answer the path to us being at peace with the thought of our own mortality?

Animals are lucky. They are not frightened of death because they never seem to think about it. But we humans have to live with the thought of not only our own end but those of our loved ones. The question of death and the afterlife have been the foremost question of thinking and thought throughout man’s history.

I am not like most Muslims who think that only knowledge after the Prophethood of Muhammad is the only knowledge worth having and all that of humankind are secondary or totally irrelevant. To me, the Prophet Muhammad came at the end of a series of thoughts and divine revelations as a culmination and symbol of unity of all beliefs.

The Qur’an contains Ayat that testify to this continuity of thought through the ‘books’ of other faiths. Of course the ‘ulama’ group would always raise the issue of ‘these books being tampered with and no longer relevant’ to Muslims. Well, to me, as an academic, one can still understand things from its overall message and still sieve through history of personal agendas and come up with the essence of the teachings.

Finding solace in their messages

I read the message of the Christians, Buddhists and Hindus and find much solace in their messages. The ulama are not fit to comment on other religions as they themselves have a limited knowledge training in their own cocoon of madrasah. In PhD language, their literature review is sorely wanting.

It was perhaps a lucky thing that I learnt Islam through reading and introspection and discussion during my time in the USA. I was freed from the ustaz’s contamination of my ideas of life and the Cosmos. Many Malays are unlucky for they are being indoctrinated since four years old till the university that Islam is exclusively Islam and other faiths are ‘wrong’, or worse, the others are ‘our enemies’.

I have studied Islam under the ustaz mindset from Year 1 to Form 2 after which I  stopped after getting my father’s permission. I made sure that all my children, who are taught by similar ustaz and ustazah, do not think like that as Muslims.

I taught my children what the Prophet Muhammad taught me through my readings of over 20,000 hadiths collection of Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Muwatta and the Sirah Ibn Hisham. I taught them not to judge people just because they are non-Muslim.

The Prophet said that all of us do not know our end. He said that it may be that someone seems to be doing good but at the end of his life did something bad and he would be in Hell, or that if someone seems to do ‘bad’ things but at the end of his life did something good and then is admitted into Heaven. The Prophet even whispered to Fatima, his daughter, that even he does not know the fate of his own flesh and blood in the hereafter.

Why are Muslims being arrogant to think that they are favoured by Allah simply because their name is a Muslim name and dress in a Muslim fashion and pray seemingly in a Muslim way? I have heard of one so called scholar who is also the leader of a big political party call another innocent Muslim a ‘barua’. Now, I come from a northern state and I know the various meanings of this term as I also have used it in my younger days.

To some people this seem a small matter but to people like Imam Ghazali who wrote his Magnum Opus, the ‘Ihya Ulumuddin’ under the chapter of ‘Bencana Lisan’ or ‘Catastrophe of the Tongue’, a Muslim can only call another Muslim by another name if that Muslim permits it. Once the Prophet called his son-in-law Ali as ‘Abu Turab’ or ‘Father of Dust’ because he used to sleep in the mosque and was covered with dust, or that he called Abu Hurraira as such because of that person’s fondness for cats.

I teach my children simple courtesy and respect for others by just these two examples of values in order to prevent them from becoming bigots. I also teach them to be magnanimous in forgiving others as how the Prophet forgave the Meccans who persecuted him and his family for 13 years. But the Malays in Malaysia seem to find relish in bad mouthing other races and remanding young adults for the silliest of infractions as in the ‘bak kut teh, incident.

An opportunity to raise our spiritual awareness

The most important lesson that I teach my children and my students is that we must treat all the different people we meet as an opportunity to raise our spiritual awareness and ultimately our spiritual consciousness by dealing with different attitudes, faiths, culture in a dignified, calm and balanced manner. How can we have a family of five children if we cannot learn to live with different individuals? Best just to live alone on an island with a mynah bird for a companion.

Spiritualists have identified the ego-self as the hindrance to being at peace with others. Eckhart Tolle added one more, the Thinking Self as an even bigger culprit in racial and religious conflicts. The Thinking Self fools us into saying that we are what we think but in actual fact our thinking is untamed and wild.

Try and stop thinking and think of nothing for one full minute. Many will fail as the thought of this and that will intrude and this goes to show that we are the slave of our thinking. The thinking self will tell us something like “oh those Chinese are drunkards and liars so that’s why they are successful at business”.

Where did the thinking self learn this? From friends, family members, self-interested politicians and egotistitical ustaz of course. But does that make it true? Many things that we think we know are actually things that we do not know. How much? Oh just 99.999 percent of things that we actually knows almost absolutely nothing at all and yet, we make judgments about people and activities based on this very restrictive and biased data. Go figure.

Next, I am Malaysian First. Well how can I not be? My passport says so. Well, as like being Muslim, I am born into a Muslim family and thus, ‘I am Muslim’. Similarly, I am born in Malaysia and since my parents are Malaysians, so I, too, must be Malaysian. Well, legally yes but spiritually and consciously, no.

I learnt from Abul A’la Maududi, the renowned scholar and politician of Pakistan, that you must consciously embrace Islam by understanding fully all its implications. It was not until  I was 24 years old that I fully understood the meaning of Islam and ‘embraced’ it then after four years of reading and introspection.

Similarly, I discovered my Malaysian identity after 17 years of following closely the events unfolding right in front of my eyes and participating in nation building discourses to the detriment of my career, I finally understood what being Malaysian means.

You have to work to be a good Muslim and also a good Malaysian. To be a Malaysian to me is two fundamental things. First, it is about democracy and what it means to be a democratic citizen. Democracy does not mean just casting your vote once every four or five years according to the whims of the prime minister of the day, but also a realisation of three important aspects.

We are the country

Firstly, that we are all responsible for whatever happens in this country, good or bad. Why? Because we are the country. Malaysia is not just sand, stone, plants, oil, bijih timah and skyscrapers but its own peoples. This country is ours and it belongs to us and to our children. It does not belong to some overambitious minister who can just tell people to ‘keluar Malaysia’ or according to some overzealous school teacher to ‘balik cina’.

This is our homeland and this is our turf. Make no mistake about that. So when my children came of age to vote, I tell them with the power of voting, you are going to chart the direction of this country and anything bad that happens to it will be your fault! Thus the responsibility to choose your ‘representative’, not your ‘leader’ or your ‘master’, your wakil rakyat to Parliament, choose with care.

Another aspect of democracy is to constantly give opinions and where necessary efforts to help those in power to bring goodness to all and sundry. We must work at helping to realise good things and work to prevent bad things like racial extremism and religious bigotry.

Thirdly, this applies only to the civil servant who must understand that their first loyalty is to the people and not the political ‘master’ of the day. Civil servants must protect the assets of the people like the prime minister’s private jet not to be misused according to whims. Teachers must ignore any directive that prohibits them from inviting the wakil rakyat from any political parties to their school.

Next, as Malaysians we must strive to understand each other’s faiths and belief system as well as culture in order to create mutual respect and learn from one another. How many books in Bahasa Malaysia have been published about the rituals and beliefs of the Chinese people? How many documentaries have been made? How many exhibitions held about our different cultural lifestyle? Berapa?

Do our children visit temples, churches, monasteries and mosques in order to cultivate understanding? No? Why not? Oh, because the ustaz teaches it is haram to go to other places of worship for fear of being converted?

I have taken my children to visit churches, temples and mosques in my research trips to understand this religious architecture. And funnily enough, there are many Malay friends who go on holidays to England and visit churches and monasteries as part of the package tour. But when they come back to Malaysia, suddenly it is haram for their children to even sleep over at a non-Muslim house. So funny.

So last comes, being a Malay First. This is the easiest or the hardest. It is easiest because, I have no choice in the matter. I was born a Malay by two Malay parents. I can’t decide not to be a Malay so I have to be part of this community, whether I find them likeable or not. My son, Ibrahim, despises being a Malay for what he sees the stupidity and arrogance that is being displayed on television and social media.

A problem with being a Malay

I also have a problem with being a Malay when I asked my wife, hey Yati, what kind of activities that we do can be considered as ‘Malay’? We both thought hard and came to the conclusion that there was nothing that we did can be considered originally Malay but all that we have done are in one way or another related to Islamic rituals, culture and belief system.

One day, I came across a wonderful and thick book titled ‘ Malay Magic’ by Walter William Skeat. I flipped through the 600 pages of text and appendices  of spells and incantations and rituals and ghosts and spirits and came to the conclusion that I do not subscribe nor believe in any of these things, and so am I still a Malay?

For the moment, I would follow whatever rites and customs that my Mother-in-law insist we do for birth, marriage and death that has Malay culturallisation with Islamic practices. I am Malay only to that extent. Nothing more nothing less. I do not go to sleep at nights thinking, how can I be a better Malay, nor do I spend any time at all teaching my children to be ‘more’ Malay.

Thus, that is the framework for a Bangsa Malaysia. I can be a Muslim First because it answers many questions that a political construct fail to address. I am Malaysian First because the unique nature of our multi-culturalism demands that we understand each other and together work alongside the elected representatives to bring about a better and better Malaysia.

I can also be a Melayu First simply because there is the question of family and customs in order to function in an ethnic-based society. I would like to summarise being Malaysian in the following words:

A Malaysian is one who is proud of his or her own race, religion and ethnic culture but also views other races with a different religion and culture as a ‘necessary and critical’ part of their social, economic and spiritual life.

As there is no family that have children that likes the same thing or behave in the same way or have the same mental aptitudes, so must a country view its diverse races as a necessary difference in order to make or fit a unit whole. A family is a unit of different individual with the same DNA and thus a nation is a family of different cultures with the same objectives of peaceful co-existence, meaningful co-operation and spiritual brotherhood.

If any of us says that it is better that this nation survive with only one ethnic group with the same religion and culture, then it is like a person who prefers to live alone without children or a spouse. Life is about accepting differences and dealing with it in order to strengthen spiritual peace.

There is no life and spiritual enlightenment without strife and challenges. God has made life and strife as inseparable partners for humankind to climb spiritual heights. We are all in the same ship in a vast ocean of challenges heading towards a common destiny.

PROF DR MOHAMAD TAJUDDIN MOHAMAD RASDI is a Professor of Architecture at UCSI University, Cheras.