Disturbing trend in Umno

An old letter I wrote to The Sun newspaper:

10:18AM Fri, 12 Nov 2010 from www.sun2surf.com

THE end of the 61st Umno general assembly on Oct 24 left a mark on the party, the largest in the Barisan Nasional and the core of the ruling coalition. Much has been discussed – education, economy, race and the Constitution – in order to show Umno as being involved in discussing the issue of nation-building.

However, what is most noticeable in Umno is the disturbing trend that is actually weakening the party: the process of its radical Islamisation and Arabisation.

True, this process began 30 years ago and its fruits seen in ensuing years, with the case mounted on the Catholic Church for its use of the term "Allah" (which it had used in Bahasa Malaysia for a long time). However, the recent assembly has marked such a disturbing trend of moralising and pontificating by delegates and speakers, that one would confuse it for a religious conference.

For example, the term "wasatiyyah" or moderation has been much thrown around like a magic word, as if to stress on the idea of the moderation of Umno.

What is wrong with "kesederhanaan"? It is a decent Malay word and has been used without problems before. Is kesederhanaan so displeasing that one has to turn to Arab terminology to impress the audience? Would the language purists be ready to pounce on these people for mixing Arab words in a

Malay language conversation or speech, as much as they would gladly do when English was used?

The same could be said of Umno youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin’s speech, the title of which was "Maqasid dan Manhaj Perjuangan" (Goals and approaches of the struggle), as if "matlamat" and "pendekatan" were not good enough. One would expect this stunt from Anwar Ibrahim, and this has been rightly pointed out by blogger Jebatmustdie.

But it doesn’t stop there. Johor Baru Puteri Umno chief Azura Mohd Afandi took morality preaching to a new level. With no logic behind it, she blamed sanitary pad advertisements for causing "social ills" – a most asinine statement if there ever was one.

It would be a joke, if not for the scary fact that she is holding a minor leadership position in the largest organisation in the ruling coalition.

The call by Perlis representative Fathul Bari Mat Jahya for the establishment of a council of ulama on the last day of the assembly is most disturbing, especially of Umno. The ulama, with their own views of how politics should be conducted i.e. a theocratic state, would not complement Umno. They would instead be a great liability. If Umno members actually bother to study history, they would know the former Umno ulama wing of the late 1940s would turn on it and form what is now known as Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS).

This trend towards radical, unthinking Islamisation and Arabisation within Umno is most unwelcome in a party that is supposed to be the leader of a multiracial and multi-religious coalition. Datuk Onn Jaafar, the founder and visionary of Umno, understood the threat of radical Islam from outside and inside Umno, and one who would call a spade a spade, rightly labelled it as "the danger from the mountains".

Great men make great mistakes. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s greatest mistake was allowing Anwar Ibrahim into Umno, thus opening the floodgates to religious fanatics like Abim infiltrating Umno, where it is now represented by speakers with a fixation for Arabic terms, and where sanitary pad commercials are thought to give rise to unruly adolescents and social ills.

Umno should stay off this road and return to its original role: a Malay, nationalist, and most importantly, secular party. Secularism has been much maligned and misrepresented by religious fanatics over the years as an anti-religious way of thinking, and this misguided view should be answered.

The idea that Umno would not allow religion or religious interpretations to bias its decision to determine national policies is the only acceptable way it can attract the moderates. And this can only be achieved by taking the original secular approach. And it should not be apologetic about it.