What Bersatu's young and restless need to do
“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
If Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman really wants to move Bersatu’s youth wing against the political tide, he would create a safe space for young secular Muslims to participate in politics.
By this I mean, Bersatu’s youth wing would be a place where young Muslims could go to and engage with these so-called “old men” of politics and not be constrained by the traditional Islamic dogma that forms the basis of hegemonic control in the Malay/Muslim polity.
Separating Islam from politics, especially in the younger Malay demographic, is crucial if we are to have a “post-Umno” era that the opposition is touting in the run-up to the next general elections. Oppositional political parties in their own way are pandering to the Malay/Muslim demographic using the same old tools that Umno uses to maintain its dominion over the Malay polity.
The so-called secular DAP funds Islamic entities on a state level and attempts to form alliances with Islamic groups whose ideology is supposed to be anathema to “secular” political parties. Amanah meanwhile attempts to present a gentler face of Islam - that so-called “moderate” stance but folds whenever important issues surface where there is a conflict between Islamic hegemony and secular values. Let us not even talk about PAS.
I think political youth wings are the dumbest idea of mainstream political parties the world over. However if we have to have them, if they are more than just a stepping stone, or ideological thuggery, or youthful political puppets to decrepit old people who form the power behind the throne, then in the Malaysian context at least, Bersatu whose mandarins are the architects of the mess we are in should offer something that no other Malay/Muslim political youth wing offers.
I have no idea what the interview process was but you do not really need a non-bumiputera representative to ensure inclusivity because (1) This party is in substance a bumiputera endeavour and (2) you can include inclusivity by ensuring secular ideas are nurtured by people who believe in them although working in a communal framework. It is rather messy but since the discourse is about changing mind-sets, maybe we can start with a mainstream Malay political youth group which advocates ideas that all the other so-called youth groups do not.
In a piece about not simply cheerleading the opposition, I argued of the culture war in the Malay youth demographic - “The younger generation of Malay voters are a promising demographic but they are currently embroiled in a culture war that consumes most of their energy and effort. Young Malay oppositional types not only have to contend with the Umno regime but they also have to contend with the Islamic forces in this country with no help whatsoever from mainstream Malay political parties or non-Malay political parties who do not view them as part of a new deal but merely a specific racial demographic needed to win the throne of Putrajaya.”
Playing computer games with young people is the last thing that signifies to young Malay people that their voices are wanted in the political process. Nearly every Malay power structures funds so-called youth groups which anesthetises the average young Malay that handouts from the government comes with an Islamic price tag or this is the only form of governance.
While the average young Malay has to submit to the harsh glare of Islam, the young bottom feeders that are funded by these old men are living high off the hog and attempting to position themselves as the new faces of whatever political power structure they have attached to.
Do you know the only youth wing which is truly committed to the ideals of the party...
‘Separating Islam from politics is crucial...’
“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
If Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman really wants to move Bersatu’s youth wing against the political tide, he would create a safe space for young secular Muslims to participate in politics.
By this I mean, Bersatu’s youth wing would be a place where young Muslims could go to and engage with these so-called “old men” of politics and not be constrained by the traditional Islamic dogma that forms the basis of hegemonic control in the Malay/Muslim polity.
Separating Islam from politics, especially in the younger Malay demographic, is crucial if we are to have a “post-Umno” era that the opposition is touting in the run-up to the next general elections. Oppositional political parties in their own way are pandering to the Malay/Muslim demographic using the same old tools that Umno uses to maintain its dominion over the Malay polity.
The so-called secular DAP funds Islamic entities on a state level and attempts to form alliances with Islamic groups whose ideology is supposed to be anathema to “secular “ political parties. Amanah meanwhile attempts to present a gentler face of Islam - that so-called “moderate” stance but folds whenever important issues surface where there is a conflict between Islamic hegemony and secular values. Let us not even talk about PAS.
I think political youth wings are the dumbest idea of mainstream political parties the world over. However if we have to have them, if they are more than just a stepping stone, or ideological thuggery, or youthful political puppets to decrepit old people who form the power behind the throne, then in the Malaysian context at least, Bersatu whose mandarins are the architects of the mess we are in should offer something that no other Malay/Muslim political youth wing offers.
I have no idea what the interview process was but you do not really need a non-bumiputera representative to ensure inclusivity because (1) This party is in substance a bumiputera endeavour and (2) you can include inclusivity by ensuring secular ideas are nurtured by people who believe in them although working in a communal framework. It is rather messy but since the discourse is about changing mind-sets, maybe we can start with a mainstream Malay political youth group which advocates ideas that all the other so-called youth groups do not.
In a piece about not simply cheerleading the opposition, I argued of the culture war in the Malay youth demographic - “The younger generation of Malay voters are a promising demographic but they are currently embroiled in a culture war that consumes most of their energy and effort. Young Malay oppositional types not only have to contend with the Umno regime but they also have to contend with the Islamic forces in this country with no help whatsoever from mainstream Malay political parties or non-Malay political parties who do not view them as part of a new deal but merely a specific racial demographic needed to win the throne of Putrajaya.”
Playing computer games with young people is the last thing that signifies to young Malay people that their voices are wanted in the political process. Nearly every Malay power structures funds so-called youth groups which anesthetises the average young Malay that handouts from the government comes with an Islamic price tag or this is the only form of governance.
While the average young Malay has to submit to the harsh glare of Islam, the young bottom feeders that are funded by these old men are living high off the hog and attempting to position themselves as the new faces of whatever political power structure they have attached to.
Do you know the only youth wing which is truly committed to the ideals of the party? Yup, PAS youth wings and their subsidiaries - they really subscribe to the Islamic dogma, that so-called “moderate” Muslims eschew publicly while attempting to garner votes but once in office pander to in the name of Muslim solidarity.
So ingrained is this belief that PAS has managed to form a cohesive and influential technocratic wing amongst its younger demographic, which spread their messages through various media, much to the chagrin of the Umno state which has a monopoly on the mainstream media.
Nowhere to turn to
The average young Malay has nowhere to turn to, certainly not the opposition when it comes to social, economic and political issues without having to conform to the discourse set forth by Islamic potentates bent only in silencing dissent and not resolving issues that young people regardless of race and religion face.
Young Malays are segregated and forced to conform to strict gender roles all in the name of Islam and the Islamic political parties in this country enforces these roles. While the hypocrisy of people with power never ceases to amaze anyone, all the Muslim youths can do is simmer in rage and latch on to even more virulent forms of Islam, because they really have no other avenues to vent their frustrations.
There are literally hundreds of fringe Malay groups of young people who form the complex structure of alternate Malay politics, and instead of carrying on ghettoising them and appealing to them when needed, they should form the mainstream of Malay politics or at the very least the mainstream of Bersatu youth politics.
And this is what nobody really talks about. The reality that there are many young Muslims who are disaffected by how Islam is practiced in this country. They are sick and tired of how so-called Malay special privileges are a noose around their necks and having to conform to a specific code of Islam while the Malay/Muslim political elites are not caught in the shadow of this harsh religion.
I have often written about the Umno state’s monopoly on Islam - “The Umno state has a monopoly on Islam, which at the end of the day, means that anyone with an agenda of proselytising would get the short end of the stick. Understand now, that my position is that people should be exposed to a diverse range of ideas or agendas and make their informed choice as to what to accept or reject.
“The big question is, will Pakatan relinquish this monopoly? Will it disband those religious institutions that shackle the Malay mind? Will affirmative action policies, which are intimately linked with Malay/Muslim identity and which have contributed to the entitlement culture, be dropped?”
There are many young Malays who consider themselves “liberal” in the sense that they do not believe that their religion defines them but they have no avenue to articulate these thoughts or even mainstream Malay politicians who would support them.
What is needed is a space and a mainstream political party that caters to the young Malay demographic which does not necessarily buy the opposition kool aid but would gladly participate in a power structure that is not the predictable Islamic preoccupied, hypocritical agency of all mainstream Malay political parties.
If Bersatu’s youth wing is truly interested in going against the political tide, it will harken back to the days of leftist Malay secular politics and not merely be another clone of every other Islamic preoccupied youth groups here in Malaysia.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.
