The unity of the Malays has been greatly jeopardised by the Malays involving themselves in various political groups. When the Malays started to join various political groups, they began to become disunited. Malays are highly emotional and sensitive people. Some Malays regard the political groups that they belong to similar to religion. Many Malays equate joining PAS to embracing Islam and rejecting PAS to denying Islam. PAS in reality is only a political party but to some Malays they regard PAS as Islam and Islam as PAS. Leaders of PAS have misled many Malays into believing that to join PAS means to embrace Islam and not to join PAS means to reject Islam. Leaders of PAS have been propagating this idea since the day PAS was established in Malaysia and the idea was loudly proclaimed when Dato’ Haji Hadi joined PAS. Some Malays tend to believe that whatever said by the PAS leaders are plain truth and as a result they are ready to live and to die for PAS. When Dato’ Haji Hadi made the infamous Fatwa known as Fatwa Haji Hadi which was supported by the leaders of PAS who declared that to join UMNO will make a person Kafir. There were Malays in Kelantan and Terengganu particularly who broke their marital and family relationships because their spouse or family were UMNO members. Malays are highly sensitive about their race and religion and they are willing to do anything in order to safeguard their race and religion. Those Malays who are more sensitive about safeguarding the interest of their race more than Islam will join UMNO and those Malays who are more sensitive about safeguarding the interest of their religion more than their race will join PAS. Malays who join UMNO believe that they are Muslims but Malays who join PAS believe that only those who join PAS are Muslims and those who join other parties particularly UMNO are Kafir. PAS is not willing to join Barisan Nasional simply because UMNO is with Barisan Nasional and Pas is willing to join Pakatan Rakyat (PR) because UMNO is not in that coalition. The enmity between PAS and UMNO has been intensifying for more than 50 years and until now it does not seem to end and the solution to the problem remains unclear to the Malays leaders.

Dato’ Nik Aziz is strongly against the idea of PAS cooperating with UMNO. This idea was proposed by some Malay leaders some time ago but the idea has to be scrapped out because many top leaders in PAS notably Dato’ Nik Aziz were against the idea. Out of anger Dato’ Nik Aziz once said that PAS is willing to cooperate even with Syaitan but not with UMNO. Dato’ Nik Aziz has been very angry with UMNO and he neither willing to forgive nor to forget the wrongdoings of UMNO against PAS when PAS was with Barisan Nasional during the time of our late Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. Since that time PAS has vowed never to join Barisan Nasional again in the future. The great division between UMNO and PAS has caused great divisions between the Malays. Many Malays were influenced by PAS leaders particularly Dato’ Haji Hadi Awang to believe that when they join or support a political party, it is the same as embracing a religious belief. According to PAS leaders, to join or to support UMNO is the same as to join or to support the groups that are against Islam and to join PAS is the same as to join Islam and to die for PAS is to die for Islam. According to PAS leaders, any person who dies for the struggles of PAS is a martyr and he or she can be called a syuhada or a martyr. PAS leaders regarded those who died in the Peristiwa Memali in Baling, Kedah on 19 November 1985 as martyrs or syuhada; thus, every year PAS will organise a memorial day to commemorate their martyrdoms. PAS members built their own mosques and ask their supporters to pray only in the mosques built by PAS. PAS leaders passed the Fatwa which declared that to pray in the mosques built by government led by UMNO will not be accepted by Allah. PAS leaders regarded the mosques built by the UMNO led government similar to the mosques built by the hypocrites during the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW. According to some of the PAS leaders, to marry an UMNO member or UMNO supporter is the same as to marry the Kafir and they were advised to divorce their spouses. According to the PAS leaders, to attend the marriage ceremony of an UMNO member is the same as attending the marriage ceremony of a Kafir and PAS members are advised not to attend the wedding ceremony even though it is the wedding ceremony of a close relative.

Division among the Malays will continue to widen as long as PAS leaders particularly Dato’ Haji Hadi Awang is not willing to withdraw his Fatwa that to join or to support UMNO means to join a Kafir party. Until now, the Fatwa remains and the unity of the Malays continue to widen. The division of the Malay worsen further when some Malays who used to be members of UMNO join the third party known as Parti Keadilan Rakyat or PKR, a party established by another avowed enemy of Barisan Nasional, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The concept of Satu Malaysia proposed by the Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak further widens the division among the Malays. With the concept of Satu Malaysia, some Malays were not happy with UMNO and they formed another group known as PERKASA which is not a political party headed by Dato’ Ibrahim Ali. PERKASA fights for the rights of the Malays, a task which is also done by UMNO. Some Malays join Jemaah Tabligh, an organization that has unwritten law which says that their members shall not vote or join any political groups or involve in any political parties. They shall only follow orders given to them by their Elders in Nizamuddin, India. Malays are divided because they are segregated into many political parties and groups. In a democratic country, a political party that wins the biggest number of parliamentary seats will rule the country. If Pas is friendly to UMNO and join Barisan Nasional, then there is a greater possibility that Pas will rules the country, in case both of these parties work together and wins the most seats in the parliament in this coming election. However this may not happen as Pas has regarded UMNO as their greatest enemy. Pas is ready to join with DAP and PKR but not with UMNO. According to Pas, UMNO is worse than DAP and PKR. It seems that Pas is not willing to forgive the wrongdoings previously done by UMNO to Pas when Pas was a key ally of UMNO once upon a time. I think this has to do with the attitude of most Malays. Malays generally are soft and gentle peoples and they do not like to quarrel with anybody but once they entangled with a quarrel, it is hard for the Malays to become friendly again.
In this coming general election in my opinion, Barisan Nasional will get votes only from some of the Malays and some from the Indians and very few from the Chinese. UMNO will not get the total solid support of the Malays. The Chinese seem to be united to change the political landscape of Malaysia and MCA will not get the total support of the Chinese. It looks as if the Chinese are bored with MCA and Barisan Nasional who had ruled Malaysia for more than 50 years. With the world economic downturn, the Chinese want to have a change in government and tend to look for an alternative. Whatever the Prime Minister did to wins the votes of the Chinese does not seems to work. The Chinese communities are eager for change. In the area where there is equal percentage of Malays and Chinese, I think Barisan Nasional will probably win only with a very slight margin or may even lost to PR. In this coming general election many predicted that Barisan Nasional will win with a very slight margin or can even lost to PR. If Barisan Nasional wins in this coming general election, we will have no problem and no chaos in the country. But Malaysia will have problem and chaos in case Barisan Nasional lost this coming general election. If the Malays which are the majority and the earliest race to settle in Malaysia are willing to see the Chinese or Indians to rule Malaysia, then I think democracy is still applicable to Malaysia. However, I do not think the Malays are willing to see other than the Malays or Barisan Nasional to rule Malaysia. In my opinion with the current political scenario where there is a possibility for Barisan Nasional to lose the election in the next coming election; democracy is no longer relevant to Malaysia. With this current situation if we pursue with democracy system, and in case Barisan Nasional loses in the next election, I think there will be continuous chaos in Malaysia. When there is continuous chaos in Malaysia, none of us including the Malays, Chinese and the Indians will be able to live in this country with peace and prosperity. Do we want to uphold democracy, at the expense of peace and prosperity in Malaysia? When there is a constant chaos in Malaysia, none of us can live and earn a living with peace and tranquillity.

Democracy is a system established to ensure justice in the selection of the leader for the country. Justice means we must choose the correct and suitable person to become the leader of the country. When we choose the wrong person to become our leader, we are not democratic and fair in our system of selecting our leader. We want a democratic system in selecting our leaders because we want to achieve peace and prosperity. With the current political scenario in Malaysia and the unwillingness of the Malays to be ruled by other than Malay and a Malay party, we can no longer use the system of democracy in choosing our leaders. With the current political scenario, if we still want to use democracy in choosing our leaders, we will have constant chaos and anarchy in the country. Currently the Malays are not ready to be ruled by other than a Malay and a Muslim. When Sonia Gandhi was going to be made the Prime Minister of India, some of the Indian Parliamentary members are willing to even kill themselves if Sonia an Italian by birth is made the Prime Minister of India. Obama, a black American is only accepted to become the President of America by the American peoples only after more than two hundred years of democracy in America. Obama is having a mixed blood between the black and the white and he is a Christians. I think if Obama were a Muslim, Americans will never allow him to become the President of America even for one day. Not all Americans can accept a black to become the President of America and this shows the fact that there are still attempt among the Whites in America to eliminate Obama.

Looking at the current political condition in Malaysia, all Malays, Chinese and Indians in Malaysia should think critically and rationally over the democratic system which is currently practice in Malaysia. We are not only different in race but we are also different in religion while in America, they have the same religion and languages but only different in colour and yet they took about two hundred years to be able to appoint the first black (mixed black and white) American to become the President of America. What do all of us want? It is true that we all want to live in Malaysia with peace and prosperity. We want Malaysia to become a country of peace so that all of us can live happily and earn our living peacefully. When the Malays are in chaos, Malaysians will also be in chaos. In order to solve the problem of Malaysia, the problem of Malay unity need to be solved first. In order for the Malays to be united, I suggest the first step that has to be taken is to choose a leader (not by democratic system), who is having the qualities of a good Muslim as well as the qualities of a good leader and is accepted by all the various Malay groups and political parties. In order to be accepted by all the Malays political parties and all the Malay groups, he must not belong to any of the parties and groups. In other words, that person must be genuine Malay, have good qualities of a Muslim, good qualities of a leader, a knowledgeable man, a non-political or not belong to any group of the Malays and has no cronies.

Prof Dr Nasoha Saabin
March 2012
Integrative Holistic Wellness Centre