Ex-CJ calls for PAS-Umno union

He says Malays must strengthen unity for Islam's sake.

KUALA LUMPUR: Former chief justice Abdul Hamid Mohamad has called on PAS and Umno to unite to ensure that Malaysia can remain as an Islamic state of sorts.

In an opinion piece published in Utusan Malaysia yesterday, he says the two parties should come together so that they can work towards permeating Malaysian society with the principles and values of Islam.

“Umno and PAS must think about merging, confederating or cooperating, at least at the federal level,” he writes.

He says Malays should stop debating whether Malaysia is or is not an Islamic state and to concentrate instead on ensuring that the country is run according to the highest maqasid (purposes) of the Syariah.

He appears to make the contention that Malaysia is for all intents and purposes already an Islamic state and Malays must look towards strengthening that status by ensuring that their unity is strong.

He says debates about definitions are a waste of time.

“I accept that Malaysia is a country with a religion, Islam, and not a country without a religion,” he writes. “But I will not attempt to define what an ‘Islamic state’ is because for me it is easier to recognize a cow when we see it than to try to give a definition of the word ‘cow.’”

He mentions an attempt several years ago by a committee of international scholars to define what constitutes an Islamic state. They eventually abandoned the effort and instead measured the maqasid Syariah achievements of countries around the world. The highest ranked countries were Sweden, Norway, Belgium and Japan, but Abdul Hamid points out that Malaysia was in one of the top positions among Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) countries.

He also refers to a famous remark made by the late 19th century Egyptian scholar Muhammad Abduh upon his return from a trip to Europe. “There I saw Islam without Muslims,” said Abduh. “Here I see Muslims without Islam.”

“Clearly,” says Abdul Hamid, “he was referring to the conditions of peace and security; the well-run public services such as education, health and transport; and the high standard of living.”

But the former judge says these testimonials to western countries did not mean that Malaysia was not in need of the constitutional provisions that protect the status of Islam in the country.

Because of these provisions, he says, the government has been able to implement social and economic policies for the benefit of Islam and Muslims. He cited, among other things, developments in Islamic banking and finance as well as Islamic education.

Abdul Hamid appears to argue that current disunity among Malays was threatening these achievements.

“For almost four decades after independence, we could do all of that because we were strong,” he writes. “We were strong because the Malays were still largely united.”

He says things have changed in the last 10 years because of the weakening of Malay unity and the propensity of others to take advantage of that weakness.