Ulama as Menteri - the challenge of transforming Malay political culture

For the second time in our history, two of the most Malay states in the Federation - namely Kelantan and Terengganu - are under the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS). 40 years ago Terengganu (in addition to Kelantan) came under PAS rule but the state government which had a narrow majority then, did not last very long partly because of UMNO's manipulations but also because of internal intrigues and factional feuds. The present PAS government in Kuala Terengganu which has an overwhelming mandate from the people is undoubtedly much more secure and more firmly ensconced in power.

Transformation

PAS control over Kelantan and Terengganu at a time when Islamic consciousness within the Malay community is much more pervasive than it was in the late fifties or early sixties presents opportunities for the transformation of Malay political culture as never before. It is this issue which we shall now address: how will PAS rule in the two Malay states change Malay political culture? What are the signs that suggest that this can happen?

Before we explore this, we should be clear in our minds that changes within a prevailing political culture are not easy to accomplish. It is much easier to enunciate a new policy or to formulate a new law. One may even establish a new institution but none of these may impact upon the political culture of a people. For a political culture embodies values, attitudes, orientations, even prejudices that may have been part of a people's psychological make-up for centuries. Islamic parties which have managed to acquire power in recent decades in different parts of the world have concentrated much more upon changing laws and policies rather than transforming the underlying political culture. And yet, in the ultimate analysis, it is the transformation of culture that endows a society or a civilisation with a new character and a new ethos.

Elections

Malay political culture, like most political cultures, is a complex mix of elements inherited from different traditions and histories. To understand this complexity, one should examine an institution whose presence and practice has become an integral dimension of Malay and Malaysian political culture. After almost five decades (local government elections were first introduced in the country in 1951) of elections, it is hard to conceive of Malaysian politics without elections and the culture that accompanies elections. At one level, the concept and practice of elections in its contemporary form is a product of Western influence. How both voters and candidates see electoral competition, for instance, has been shaped to a great extent by Western political culture. At another level, some of the factors that influence voting patterns within the Malay community are clearly the product of deeply entrenched attitudes moulded by relationships sanctioned by time and tradition. Within a segment of the Malay community, there is still the attitude that candidates from government parties should be supported - regardless of their track-record or the performance of the government - simply because they represent the government. This shows that uncritical acceptance of state authority, a certain subservience to governmental power, which is a carry-over from Malay feudal history continues to affect Malay political thinking.

The other feudal trait which has been challenged by PAS ulama-cum-menteri is ostentatious living. PAS Menteri Besar of Kelantan, Tuan Guru Nik Abdul Aziz decided that he would set an example as soon as he took charge of the State government in 1990. He has chosen to live in his own modest, little, semi-wooden house. It is important to observe that Hadi has also chosen to live in his own house in Rusila rather than in the Menteri Besar's official residence in Kuala Terengganu.

While feudalism is one of the major influences upon contemporary Malay political culture, Islam has also shaped Malay political attitudes and orientations. It is because of the impact of Islam that significant sections of the Malay community, both in rural and urban Malaysia, hold the ulama in such great reverence. The ulama are perceived as the paragons of Islamic virtue. This is why any attack on them by any political leader is bound to have adverse repercussions for the individual concerned and his party. The severe erosion of support for Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and UMNO especially in the religiously oriented 'Malay belt' (Terengganu, Kelantan, Perlis and Kedah) in the recent elections - though a consequence of a number of other factors too - demonstrates this in no uncertain terms.

Ulama and Menteri

Uncritical acceptance of state authority, on the one hand, and deep reverence for the ulama, on the other, are manifestations of two crucial aspects of Malay political culture which, over the centuries, have often co-existed uneasily and sometimes collided sharply. Since the Sultan symbolised the authority of the State in the past, it was essentially the ulama coming into conflict with interests associated with the Sultan. However, since substantive power resides with the Cabinet in present-day Malaysia, it would be more appropriate to describe any clash between the two as a Menteri-Ulama conflict. Given the growing role and influence of the ulama in Malaysian politics, so evident in the elections, it is not inconceivable that the Menteri-Ulama conflict may develop into a major schism within the Malay community in the future.

What has made this conflict even more complicated is the assumption of the role of Menteri by the Ulama. As Menteri, the Ulama are beginning to challenge certain aspects of Malay feudal culture. Through their pronouncements and actions, PAS ulama at the helm of government in Terengganu and Kelantan have questioned both uncritical acceptance of state authority and ostentatious, opulent elite lifestyles.

Telling the Truth

In one of his earliest pronouncements after becoming Menteri Besar of Terengganu, Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi Awang advised the people, the media and government officials to tell the truth to their political leaders even if it hurts them. If they are wrong, they should be told that they are wrong. Government officials in particular should not try 'to curry favour' with the leaders by concealing the truth from them. They should not indulge in cheap flattery.

Hadi's advice is in line with one of the most fundamental principles of Islamic political thought. Obedience is only to the truth. As the first of the Righteous Caliphs, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq put it, "Behold me, behold me, charged with the care of government. I am not the best among you; I need all your advice and all your help. If I do well, support me; if I make mistakes, counsel me. To tell the truth to a person commissioned to rule is faithful allegiance; to conceal it is treason."

By linking 'faithful allegiance' to 'telling the truth' and 'the concealment of the truth' to 'treason', the great Caliph had turned upside down the very concept of loyalty and disloyalty prevalent in all feudal cultures. His view of the relationship between ruler and the ruled was firmly rooted in not only the Quranic vision of the human being as the Khalifatul Allah (Vicegerent of God) owing absolute, ultimate loyalty to God, and God alone, but also in the Sunatic tradition which is replete with examples of how the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) encouraged open, honest discourse within the first Muslim community.

Feudal trait

But after the rule of the Righteous Caliphs, and with the expansion of the Muslim empire, feudal traits began to take root. Muslim rulers started to insist upon absolute loyalty to their authority. Those who were unquestioningly loyal but corrupt or oppressive were chosen as Ministers and Advisors over those who were more loyal to God and to the values of justice and compassion embodied in the Quran. If a monarch was held in check now and then, it was because Islamic law (the Syariah) limited his power through the sovereignty of God.

As Muslim societies became more and more feudal, even the ulama began to display feudal attitudes in their relations with their followers. An unquestioning, uncritical acceptance of their religious authority - even if it contravened the Quranic spirit - was assiduously cultivated. This explains why in the relationship between certain Islamic leaders and their supporters, there is sometimes a blind, irrational adulation of the former by the latter.

So when Islam came to Malaysia at the end of the 14th or the beginning of the 15th century, it brought with it a feudal political culture. The feudalism of pre-Islamic Malaysia was, in that sense, reinforced by the feudal culture of the new religion. It is this feudal political culture that UMNO has absorbed into its bloodstream.

Unquestioning Loyalty

And indeed, for UMNO feudalism expressing itself through unquestioning loyalty to the party president has been one of the principal pillars of its power and its ideology. In my Protector? written 20 years ago, I had analysed the phenomenon of unquestioning loyalty and how it had sustained the power of the UMNO ruling elite, particularly the man at the apex. Of course, unquestioning loyalty as the defining element in the relationship between the UMNO president and UMNO members is no longer the force it once was. The democratic process, education, social mobility, and intra-party feuds have all conspired to weaken this feudal, or rather, neo-feudal trait. Nonetheless, as the recent elections revealed, neo-feudalism continues to survive more in the attitude of the dominant UMNO elite than among the Malay masses.

This is why in trying to eradicate this retrogressive trait in our political culture, Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi Awang and other PAS leaders should focus upon the elites - those who wield power and influence. They should constantly and continuously urge the elites to encourage the people to question them, to challenge their policies, to expose their wrongdoings. PAS leaders in Terengganu should themselves set the example by commending their critics and holding them up as models worthy of emulation. Of course, there should also be a systematic, concerted endeavour to educate the people about the danger of unquestioning loyalty to the leader. Through efforts directed at both the masses and the elites, it is possible that neo-feudal loyalties will eventually disappear from Malay political culture. Terengganu should be the harbinger of a transformed political culture which will be more Islamic and more democratic in the real sense.

Ostentatious Living

The other feudal trait which has been challenged by PAS ulama-cum-menteri is ostentatious living. In order to repudiate the legitimacy of such living, the PAS Menteri Besar of Kelantan, Tuan Guru Nik Abdul Aziz, a much respected ulama, decided that he would set an example as soon as he took charge of the State government in 1990. Instead of occupying the official residence of the Menteri Besar or taking the Menteri Besar's housing allowance, Nik Aziz has chosen to live in his own modest, little, semi-wooden house. In other respects too, his lifestyle is exemplary which is one of the secrets of his immense popularity in Kelantan to this day. It is important to observe that Hadi has also chosen to live in his own house in Rusila rather than in the Menteri Besar's official residence in Kuala Terengganu.

That simple, modest living is a much cherished Islamic virtue needs no emphasis. The Prophet embodied this virtue in his entire life. Even after his triumphant return to Mecca, he continued to lead an austere life, shorn of the embellishments of power and wealth. The early Caliphs such as Abu-Bakr, Sayyidina Umar Ibn Khatab and Sayyidina Ali Ibn Talib also eschewed pomp and luxury.

Because simplicity and modesty were imprinted in the souls of so many of the early Muslims any deviation on the part of any Caliph provoked a severe rebuke from these virtuous individuals. One such individual was one of the Prophet's companions, Abu-Dhar al-Giffari, who admonished a Caliph who appeared to succumb to extravagance and opulence.

However, as feudal power structures became more and more entrenched, and popular challenges to the Rulers became more and more muted, Caliphs and Sultans began to wallow in wealth and abundance. Beginning with the Caliph Muawiyyah, luxurious living and extravagant tastes became part and parcel of the architecture of feudal power.

As in the case of unquestioning loyalty to the Sultan, an ostentatious lifestyle was also one of those elements from Muslim civilisation that seeped into the Malay elite world when it came into contact with Islam. Though the early Rulers of Melaka - the first Malay-Muslim empire in insular Southeast Asia - were somewhat restrained in their attitude towards wealth and luxury, latter-day Sultans were extravagant and decadent.

As the inheritor of Malay feudal power, the UMNO elite, especially in recent years, has come to be associated with the lifestyle and habits of the rich and the opulent. Indeed, even a section of the expanding Malay middle class sees the flaunting of wealth and the display of riches as the privilege and the prerogative of those who have arrived. It explains why in the last two decades or so, luxurious homes, expensive cars, extravagant attire, exquisite jewellery and fanciful furniture have become the hallmarks of the upwardly mobile segment of the Malay community.

In articulating an alternative lifestyle guided by Islamic values of modesty and simplicity PAS ulama in power in Kelantan and Terengganu are faced with a formidable challenge. The middle-class in particular will have to be conscientisized about the virtue of simple, modest living. The elite should be warned of the adverse consequences of elite extravagance for society as a whole. To persuade both the elite and the middle-class of the importance of an alternative lifestyle PAS leaders themselves will have to set the example. In changing one's lifestyle, nothing is more persuasive than the example of those who wield influence and authority in society.

If the PAS ulama as Menteri succeed in changing just these two aspects of the prevailing political culture - checking unquestioning loyalty to leader and curbing ostentatious living - they would have begun a process of transformation whose impact will be so great that Malay society and the Malaysian nation will never be the same again.