Who Can Say "Reformasi" ?

The battle to define a new national identity
By Dorinda Elliott ( Adopted from Newsweek Magazine )

Zulkifli bin Sulong hardly looks like a media heavy hitter. The 36-year-old
Islamic-party functionary studied agriculture before becoming editor of the
Malaysian opposition party's in-house newsletter. His cramped offices
have no newsroom. A few women cloaked in Islamic tudungs, or head
scarfs, sit behind desks, seemingly not doing much. But by an accident of
history, circulation of Zulkifli's paper, called Harakah, has quadrupled in
the past year to more than 250,000 copies, making it the biggest
newspaper in Malaysia. Zulkifli has become Malaysia's bravest editor,
running bold, antigovernment essays and comments by opposition leaders.
The government has warned him not to try selling the party publication on
newsstands. Zulkifli is more concerned about striking the right editorial
balance. "We used to be able to publish articles about how to be a good
Muslim," he says, "but now we have to cover everybody's concerns. My
job is much more difficult now."

Zulkifli owes his fame to the troubles of former deputy prime minister
Anwar Ibrahim. After six months of imprisonment and trial on charges that
he forced witnesses to retract their stories of his sexual
misconduct—accusations that he resolutely denies—Anwar will hear his
verdict next week. His fight with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who
sacked his deputy last September after Anwar criticized corruption,
sparked a reformasi movement. More than any other group, Malaysia's
Islamic fundamentalists have capitalized on the political eruption. "The
government has been bashed, and the only real beneficiary is the Islamic
party," says Razak Baginda, a secular Malay who heads a political think
tank in Kuala Lumpur. "The traditional media are so tainted that people
are going to other platforms to get information. Even I read Harakah."

In the past year, the Islamic party—known as Pas—has done back flips to
reposition itself as a mainstream group. Its calls for limb-chopping and
stoning punishments and an Islamic state are off the agenda. Its leaders
now attack corruption and nepotism and stage rallies with Chinese
Malaysian opposition leaders—most of them non-Muslims—and liberal
women's and human-rights organizations. As a result, membership has
risen by 70,000, to 600,000. Nurturing his own ambitions from prison,
Anwar last week launched his own multiracial group, the National Justice
Party. He aims to keep control of the reformasi movement and to stave off
the increasing popularity of Pas. At the same time, Anwar will preserve his
own bona fides as a lifelong Islamic activist. His wife, Wan Azizah Ismail,
an ophthalmologist who trained in Ireland and will head the new party,
wears the tudung, along with her two eldest daughters. Her daughters "say
Mommy is wearing it, so they want to, too," she says.

Anwar has built his career as a champion of the Islamic cause. As a
student he fought for the rights of poor farmers under the banner of Islamic
justice. In government he helped set up an Islamic university and an Islamic
banking industry. In recent years Anwar has gone out of his way to
develop a liberal philosophy that advocates human rights and tolerance of
political, religious and racial differences. But Chinese Malaysians and even
some Malays worry that the spread of Islam will lead to prejudice toward
non-Muslims and a more restrictive society. They point out that Anwar has
not stood up to Islamic conservatives: when religious police arrested
beauty-pageant contestants for indecency almost two years ago, Anwar
was wishy-washy. He also presided over a controversial decision to make
Islamic studies mandatory in universities.

Islamic influences have spread in the past decade. As conservative mullahs
have preached that good Muslim women should cover from head to toe,
social pressure to wear tudungs has increased. In several states Islamic
laws, applicable only to Muslims, have been amended, making polygamy
as well as divorce easier. Not all Malaysians are happy about such trends.
"Pas has never talked about democracy and justice in the past—it is an
intolerant party," says Zainah Anwar, whose group Sisters in Islam
promotes Islamic women's rights. "They attack us as infidels because we
interpret the Koran differently, but we have the right to speak, too." Adds
Baginda, who refused to have his daughter wear the tudung when she was
pressured at school: "We feel we can't challenge the imams [Islamic
priests] because we don't know enough. But I'm convinced that... the
imams are taking us for a ride."

Mahathir, an avowed secularist, has criticized the Islamic party, saying its
strictures are outdated. The ruling United Malays National Organization is
based on race, not religion: according to his vision, UMNO and Malay
businessmen would join hands to modernize the country and lift the Malays
up from poverty. Mahathir's wife doesn't wear the tudung. Detested by
Islamic conservatives, Mahathir expressed concern recently that tapes
calling for Muslims to assassinate him are being circulated. Mahathir has
attacked some Muslims for adhering to the rituals, instead of the spirit, of
Islam. He has been quoted, for example, as saying that women wearing
the veil can also commit sins.

That doesn't stop some Malaysian Muslims from seeing their national
future in Kelantan, the northeastern state whose government is controlled
by Pas. The Kelantan government would like to implement hudut
justice—including stoning and cutting off limbs—but can't because it
contravenes the national civil code. Nonetheless, strict values prevail. At
the Darul Anuar Arabic High School, students spend 60 percent of their
time studying Islam. "Islamic values will help overcome corruption and
cheating," says Mohamad Zain Abdul Rahman, 47, the soft-spoken
principal. "And if we had stoning, we could avoid all sorts of social ills." At
the former Beach of Passionate Love, once a lovers' hangout, religious
officials monitor couples to make sure they don't touch. The beach has
been renamed the less suggestive Moonlight Beach. "God gave us negative
aspects in life," says Nik Aziz, the Islamic cleric who heads the Kelantan
government, "and one way to avoid social ills is to implement the law of
God."

As the Mahathir era draws to a close, the debate about Malaysia's
political fate is sure to intensify. Anwar's liberal supporters hope to build a
society based on an inclusive Islam. Many professionals welcome the fact
that the reformasi movement has led Pas leaders for the first time to hold
rallies with leaders of the Chinese opposition party. But the conservative
forces are holding fast. They recently criticized Azizah for holding hands
with a Chinese man at a rally. Azizah avoids shaking men's hands and
recently started wearing elastic armbands to make sure her wrists don't
show. "It doesn't affect my belief in being moderate," says Azizah, "but this
way I will not be attacked by conservatives." Consider those armbands a
symbol of the struggle for Malaysia's future. Newsweek International, April 12, 1999

“Sebagai rakyat yang patriotik, adalah menjadi tanggungjawab kita untuk membawa negara kita keluar dari kemelut sekarang. Maruah negara perlu dikembalikan. Arang yang terconteng di muka bangsa Malaysia perlu dibersihkan. Nama Malaysia perlu diharumkan kembali, iaitu negara yang mempunyai rakyat yang berani berjuang menegakkan kebenaran dan keadilan." Datuk Seri Anwar “Political parties andnon-government organisations must work together and set aside their differences in orderto free Malaysia from continuing stranglehold of crisis and oppression....Our party is prepared to sacrifice its own interests inorder to achieve the larger goal of forging a credible alternative to the Barisan Nasional  (National Front),"   " Dr. Wan Azizah KRU-keADILan Home - Links - keADILan Official Website