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Badawi stresses moderate Islam

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has reaffirmed adherence to "Islam Hadhari" (progressive or moderate Islam), even as the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the main political party within the governing Barisan Nasional (B.N. or National Front) coalition, is once again expressing itself against corruption in public affairs.

Neither of these two commitments is directly related to the latest international environment - the London bombings and failed attempts that are blamed on "Islamic extremists", besides the impact of the Chinese currency-valuation-change on the Malaysian ringgit.

Instead, the pledges signify a renewal of the UMNO's pledge to "politically contain" the Opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS in local parlance). PAS is known to espouse the "cause" of bringing into being an "Islamic state" in some form or other in the Muslim-majority Malaysia.

The renewal of vows is related as much to the ongoing annual political stock-taking by the UNMO as the need to keep the party of majority Malay community "acceptable" to the multi-racial country, where a prosperous Chinese segment and the ethnic Indians are often seen to require reassurances.

Refurbishing image

The current campaign to refurbish the image of the UMNO should be seen in the context of what some Malaysian experts such as K. S. Nathan characterise as the sustained "re-engineering of the UMNO" under the leadership of Mr. Badawi, who led the B.N. coalition to a massive victory in the 2004 parliamentary polls after succeeding long-time Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

While Patricia Martinez and other analysts have identified Mr. Badawi's "sense of leadership" as a key factor at work at the ground level, three issues dominate Malaysian politics at this time — the continuing relevance of PAS despite its dramatic loss of parliamentary seats; the corrosive effect of alleged "money politics" in a situation of dominance by the so-called "UMNO-putras"; and the possible political re-emergence of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim after his current statutory ban from any elective office, imposed on account of his earlier imprisonment for a "corrupt practice" is lifted.

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