News & Comment
Malaysia Protests against PM Najib Razak Draw Thousands

News

Tens of thousands of Malaysians protested over the weekend in the capital Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere, calling for Prime Minister Najib Razak to step down over a financial scandal. The protesters are angered by a $700m (£455m) payment made to his bank account from unnamed foreign donors. It was discovered last month during a probe into alleged mismanagement at the debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Mr Najib has denied any wrongdoing.

The leader of Bersih, Maria Chin, said the protest was not anti-government. "We don't want to topple the government but we want to topple corrupt politicians," she told the Malaysian Insider.

The main accusation against Mr Najib is that he took $700m from the indebted 1MDB, which he established in 2009 to try to turn Kuala Lumpur into a financial hub. Cabinet ministers have said the money transfers were "political donations" from unidentified Middle Eastern sources, and that there was nothing improper. No further details have been given. (Source: news.bbc.co.uk, 30 August 2015)

Comment

Compared to the Lewinsky affair of the US and recent rumblings of past paedophile activities at the highest levels of civil society in the UK, the 1MDB scandal swirling around Prime Minister Najib appears to have elicited a relatively raucous and well organised protest from the usually apathetic 'tidak apa' Malaysians. It has provided a politically expedient rallying point for a varied spectrum of opposition groups with diverse agendas and interests. Was the protest only and solely about Najib?

58 years ago, the Melayu gained independence from the British at a huge cost. Political - the loss of absolute majority, ideological - the loss of the unequivocal allegiance to Islam to secularism, economic - the continuance of a socio-economic construct engineered along racial lines and psychological - the loss of the very name 'Tanah Melayu' (The Land of the Melayu) to the new name 'Malaysia'.

The decedents of the immigrants who entered through the British and were generously offered citizenship and Jus Soli, have been pushing against earlier pledged 'red lines'. The sowers of discord between the peoples of Sabah, Sarawak and Peninsula Malaysia appear to have gained ground. The fabric of Malaysia seems to be slowly unraveling.

No one appears to be happy with the basis and original 'contract' of Malaysia anymore, this is the real elephant in the room.

If Malaysians are serious about change and progress, they need to look deeper, at the very basis of Malaysia. Though often repeated, no one truly believes in the 5 founding principles the Rukun Negara (Canons of the Nation). Unsurprisingly it fails to bind Malaysian's richly diverse communities and 'tribes'. This is the greater tragedy.

Instead of diversity being a source of strength, it rather seems to be the ham-string crippling the nation's rapid progress. So what should be the 'foundation' of Malaysia?
Race is an unchosen happening, deep thought or solutions to life do not emanate from it. It is sheer ignorance to build an enlightened and progressive country on that. Blind faith, is the refuge of the confused, ignorant and fearful, this too would not be adequate to serve as the foundation of a great nation.

To truly progress, Malaysia has to be re-built upon a worthy foundation - one built on reason and reality from which an ideology and a comprehensive and just system emanates. An intellectual basis, removed from the shallowness of race and the prejudice of irrational blind faith.

For over 1400 years the ideology of Islam stands unique in eradicating the false bonds of tribe and race, constructing instead a society and brotherhood built upon the Aqeedah and the system from which it emanates. Raising society to the pursuit of the pleasing of the Creator, rather than pandering to the baser self-serving instincts of animals. If Malaysians are truly serious about a strong, progressive and just nation - they must dare to put prejudice and bigotry aside and study this issue deeply, collectively and re-build the nation upon the true intellectual basis, based upon the Islamic Aqeedah that agrees with the nature of mankind.

Allah (swt) informs us in Surah Al Mu'minuun verse 52:

((وَإِنَّ هَذِهِ أُمَّتُكُمْ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً وَأَنَا رَبُّكُمْ فَاتَّقُونِ))

"And verily this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood, and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore fear Me (and no other)."

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Muhammad Hamzah