11 - The PAS–BN Conflict in the 1990s: Islamism and Modernity

Summary

Expressing fundamental class antagonisms in the countryside, support for the PMIP [today known only as PAS] cannot simply be seen as the product of religious fanaticism nor … can it be seen as an expression of Malay racialism. Rooted in the grievances of a threatened smallholder peasantry, the PMIP, like many populist movements, is a conservative movement of radical discontent. This ambiguity stems from the paradoxical interests and aspirations of its main supporters who, as peasant smallholders, wholly or in part, call for the restoration of the peasant social order … While their social relations remain encased within the traditional mould, the smallholders are the group most vulnerable to the intrusion of outside economic forces.

Clive Kessler

Introduction

Throughout the 1990s, the approach taken towards Islam by Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and his Barisan Nasional (National Front, BN) government, can be characterized as an attempt to co-opt Islamist opposition to his government's “secular” politics and development plans. In an effort to carry this out, Dr Mahathir repeatedly argued that there existed two kinds of Malaysian Muslims — those who advocated a “traditional” and narrow understanding of Islam and its role in society and politics, and those who hold a commitment to a “modernist” and rational interpretation of Islam's teachings. The success of Dr Mahathir's efforts to define the framework within which the relationship of Islam to political competition in Malaysia is understood has been far-reaching. It is apparent that an increasingly wealthy layer of Malay Muslims in Malaysia — or at least those who support Dr Mahathir's interpretations of Islamic teachings — use this dichotomous framework to explain their own relationship to their faith. As anthropologist Patricia Sloane has shown, her Malay Muslim “entrepreneur” interviewees explained to her at length that they were striving towards a “modern” understanding of Islam, in which the active pursuit of wealth was encouraged. Several of Sloane's contacts contrasted this understanding with their real or imagined kampong (village) pasts, where to them, Malay Muslims expected to receive a livelihood without much effort, in the politics of “neo-traditionalist”, “anti-modern” groups.