Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian
On Dec. 25, the Malaysian government
announced that it had accepted the withdrawal of two Israeli windsurfers from
the International Sailing Federation world youth sailing championships, due to begin
two days later.
Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Khairy
Jamaluddin said that Malaysia, which does not have diplomatic relations with
Israel, “is guided by the existing policy of the Malaysian government.”
The athletes had rejected demands which would
have forbidden them from carrying Israel’s flag or wearing any symbol on their
attire and surfboards showing their country of origin.
These kinds of incidents have been par for the course for decades. But why this animosity towards a
far-off state with which Malaysia has little contact?
This has
to be seen in the wider context of Malaysian politics, which is bound up with
deep ethnic and religious divides between the Muslim Malays, 60 per cent of the
population, and the minority Chinese and Indian communities.
Malaysia is a federation of 13 states, nine
of which have Muslim sultans who take turns to occupy the post of king for the country.
Islam is the official religion and Muslims are governed by sharia law, while
the other ethnic groups practice non-Islamic faiths such as Christianity,
Hinduism and Buddhism.
Malaysia has a long history of tensions
over issues ranging from dietary differences to the economic preferences
enshrined in Malaysian law for the Malay Muslim majority, and these issues have
sometimes spilled over into violence.
Malaysia’s ruling party, the United Malays
National Organisation (UMNO), has governed the country in a coalition known as
the Barisan Nasional since independence but nearly lost power
in the May 2013 general election to an alliance that included the Pan-Malaysian
Islamic Party (PAS).
To fend off extremists, the government has
encouraged, facilitated, and enhanced the role of the Islamic religious
establishment in Malaysian society.
But now there are worrying signs that the
sort of ideology that fuels jihadi violence in the Middle East is reaching
Malaysia, especially in the wake of recent efforts by PAS to implement hudud in Kelantan, a state which it governs. It is the sharia law that
provides penalties such as amputation of limbs for theft and stoning to death
for adultery.
In September 2014, militants from Malaysia
and neighbouring Indonesia fighting in Syria formed a military unit for
Malay-speaking Islamic State fighters. Unofficial guesses are
that as many as 400 have left for the Middle East although some put the figure
as high as 1,000.
The ruling UMNO fears that PAS may outflank
it among devout Muslims, so attacking Israel helps it retain its loyalists. Support for the Palestinians in
the Middle East conflict appeals to the Malay Muslim electorate.
Malaysia’s
current prime minister, Najib Razak, has reiterated Malaysia’s strong support
for the Palestinian cause, and visited Hamas-ruled Gaza in January 2013.
Might
things eventually improve? There was one hopeful note recently: In a speech to
the United Nations General Assembly last Oct. 1, Najib called for the “dawn of
a much needed revised relationship between Muslims and Jews.”
He quoted the Torah in his speech, and also met with Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s a start.
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