Malaysia: Islam and multi-culturalism

The policies of Mahathir and Umno have come under fire from two different quarters. For secular liberals like human-rights lawyer Malik Imtiaz, the "Islamisation" of Malaysian society and politics has gone too far, and is eroding the country's once-liberal traditions. The non-Muslims, he says bluntly, are second-class citizens. For the Islamic opposition party Pas, on the other hand, Islamisation has not gone nearly far enough. Ever since it broke away from Umno in the 1950s, PAS has argued that Malaysia should become an Islamic state governed by the Sharia (Islamic law). This has thrown Umno onto the defensive. "Umno and Pas are engaged in a holier-than-thou battle,"says women's rights activist Zainah Anwar.The group she helped to found in the 1980s, Sisters in Islam, seeks to defend women's rights within the framework of Islam. She and her colleagues are not the only ones opposed to Pas' brand of conservative Islam. It also alarms the non-Muslim minorities, who fear that under a Pas-led government their rights would be jeopardised.

The country is now in transition. Since Mahathir stepped down in 2003, many Malaysians have been pinning their hopes on his quiet and cautious successor, Abdullah Badawi. They see the release from prison of Anwar Ibrahim - the country's best-known Muslim intellectual - as marking the turning of a page. Once seen as Mahathir's likely successor, Anwar Ibrahim was convicted of corruption and sodomy and only released last year, after six years in jail. Although banned from holding political office until 2008, he appears to be resuming his role as a leading opposition politician.

So will Malaysia be able to shake off the corruption and authoritarianism which have tarnished the Umno project? And can it transform its disparate communities into a unified Malaysian nation where everyone is equal? These are the challenges of the post-Mahathir era.

Adapted from BBC news, Article by Roger Hardy, February 2005

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