如果有什么令伊党展露本质,那就是其在上周党大会上,展示本身是拒绝与像大马这样一个多元民族和多元宗教社会共存的政党。这个政党以抹黑和扭曲的自我保护方式,建议削减少数民族权利,甚至消除少数族裔特性,来实现其伊斯兰国议程。这样的议程与宗教无关,而是攸关政治和权力。
这与已故法兹诺和聂阿兹领导时代下展现尊重多元的包容性伊斯兰政党,相去甚远。当时的伊党,不只在吉兰丹和登嘉楼,也在半岛西海岸,获得非穆斯林的支持,因为当时的党领导人,尤其是聂阿兹,强调先知的教义,其中包括保护非穆斯林福利的责任。
妖魔化行动党
此次的伊党大会,目睹前所未有对“华人”进行抨击,而行动党再次被当成“恶魔”。自行动党第一次执政中央后,这样的论述更响亮,而根据伊党中委哈丽玛的说法,显然行动党一心想把马来西亚变成“第二个新加坡”。
哈丽玛的评论,是继伊党妇女组副主席莎拉米雅感叹中文将成为国家第二语言,她认为,华小并没有促进团结,并指更好团结国民的方法是把阿拉伯语,特别是《可兰经》和圣训,作为国家第二语言。
然而,哈丽玛对母语学校的观点也令人“耳目一新”,她认为伊党应该效仿华小的表现,这也是一些马来父母把孩子送到华小原因。
莎拉米雅的观点,也许就代表著许多伊党成员所担心的,但他们应该思考为何国小在促进国民团结上,很大程度是失败的。这会否是国小日渐的伊斯兰化观感,而推动了非马来人以及许多马来人转投华小怀抱?
例如,在马六甲亚罗牙也县罗目支那新民华小全校55名学生中,只有9人是华裔,其馀都是马来人。同时,据教育部统计,华小学生中,有18%是非华裔,其中多数是马来人。
虽然伊党注重来世的事务,但事实是中文是目前世界上最多人使用的语言,这是因为中国有13亿人口以及其不断增长的经济实力。
建议学习阿拉伯语并没有害处,但如果伊党的意图是打算以此宣教,或让非穆斯林儿童接触伊斯兰,其将无法获得非穆斯林父母的支持,尤其许多非穆斯林对伊党的宗教政治就持有质疑。
伊党过去曾真诚的推动国民团结。当时的领袖甚至举办跨宗教对话,到访教堂和寺庙,以促进彼此联系。这些具有前瞻思想的领袖已经离开伊党加入诚信党或土团党。如果伊党认真要促进国民团结,为何不建议增加华小及泰米尔小学的国语课时段?我们必须承认,非马来人的国语使用和熟练程度仍然不尽如人意。
犹如种族清洗
在另一方面,伊党领导的吉兰丹政府,属下的伊斯兰和马来传统习俗理事会(MAIK)宣布了一项雄心勃勃的计划,要在2049年时将该州的每一个原住民改教为穆斯林。这遭到原住民发展局(Jakoa)总监祖里依多的谴责,他说利用权力趁机改变原住民社区信仰是错误的。
原住民的万物有灵论,其生活方式和信仰是他们的身份特征。任何企图以“进步”之名,大规模改变原住民,要他们放弃自己的信仰,都是另一种“种族清洗”形式,类似于澳州、非洲和拉丁美洲土著面对的遭遇,基督教传教士和政府赞助的同化计划,以“拯救”他们“罪恶”的生活方式之名,改变他们的信仰和传统。
这也令人想起20世纪80年代中期“养子”计划。在该计划下,来自沙巴和砂拉越的基督教会中学生被送到吉兰丹和登嘉楼寄宿,以完成他们的中六课程。
非穆斯林在已故聂阿兹领导下的吉兰丹政府,是受到尊重的利益相关者,但现在的州政府对原住民态度是非常恶劣的。伊党对于不宪报原住民世代生存的保留地,反而支持木材公司进入伐木,以及对吉兰丹峇迪族因麻疹疫情而多人死亡的冷漠表现,都与伊斯兰无关。
尽管伊党主席哈迪阿旺向非穆斯林喊话,不必对伊党与巫统联盟下可能产生的单一族群政府感到焦虑,但人们并不相信其说词。因为,过去一年来这政党联盟表现出其对社会多元性日益不容忍,这也是其政治上精明操作。他们的方法似乎取得了一定程度的成功,令有多元化民族代表的希盟政府在固打、绩效制和公开竞争等问题上,举步维艰。
今天,伊党试图消灭吉兰丹原住民文化和生活方式。一旦他们执政中央,他们会否制定同样政策,对待其他弱势群体和少数族裔。
《伊党眼中有少数民族吗?》(Will minorities have a place in PASˇ Malaysia?)原文:
IF there is one thing that PAS has revealed itself to be in these last few days is that it is a party that refuses to co-exist in a multi ethnic and multi-faith country like Malaysia.
This is a party that has taken the dark and twisted road of self-preservation by suggesting to curtail the rights of minorities, even culling ethnic groups to fulfill its agenda of an Islamic state which, has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with politics and power.
It is a far cry from the days of leaders such as the late Ustaz Fadzil Nor and the late Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat who portrayed an all-embracing form of Islam that valued diversity. PAS then received support from the non-Muslims in Kelantan and Terengganu as well as in the West Coast of the Peninsular due to the partyˇs leadership then and especially of Nik Aziz who stressed on the teachings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) which included the responsibility to protect the welfare of non-Muslims.
The PAS Muktamar witnessed unprecedented Chinese-bashing with unsurprisingly, the DAP being made the bogeyman once again.
The sloganeering was louder this time around since the DAP is in the Federal Government for the first time and is apparently hell bent on making Malaysia a ¨Second Singapore〃, according to PAS central committee member Dr Halimah Ali.
Her comments came in the wake of womenˇs wing vice-chief Salamiah Md Nor who in her address, rued the day that Mandarin becomes the countryˇs second language.
She reasoned that vernacular schools did not promote unity and contended that a better way of doing so was to make Arabic specifically the Quran and Sunnah as the second language.
Dr. Halimah however had a refreshing perspective on vernacular schools, saying they should be emulated for their academic track record where even Malay parents are sending their children there.
Perhaps Salamiah whose views many fear represent the majority of PAS members should ponder why national schools have largely failed to promote national unity. Could it be the perceived creeping in of Islamisation into national schools that have fueled the increase in the popularity of vernacular schools among non-Malays as well as many Malays?
For instance, of the 55 students in Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Sin Min in Lubok Cina, Alor Gajah, Malacca, only nine are Chinese while the rest are Malays.
According Ministry of Education statistics, 18 per cent of Chinese primary school population comprise of non-Chinese, mostly Malays.
While PAS is fixated on the hereafter, the fact remains that Mandarin is currently the most spoken language in the world due to the global native speakers of 1.1 billion as well as Chinaˇs growing economic might.
No harm learning Arabic though, but if the intention is to dakwah, or expose non-Muslim children to Islam, then it will run into problems getting the support of non-Muslim parents who are largely suspicious of PAS and its use of religion for politics.
There was a time when PAS was sincere about national unity. Its leaders even held interfaith dialogues and visited churches and temples to foster ties.
These forward-thinking leaders have since left the party to join AMANAH or Bersatu.
If PAS is serious about national unity, why not moot instead for increased slots for Bahasa Malaysia in Chinese and Tamil schools? We have to acknowledge that the use and proficiency of Bahasa Malaysia is still not satisfactory among non-Malays.
In another development the PAS lead Kelantan Islamic Religious and Malay Customs Council (MAIK) had announced an ambitious plan to convert every single Orang Asli in the state to Islam by 2049.
This plan received a much-deserved rebuke from Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) director-general Juli Edo who said it was wrong to take advantage of the Orang Asli communities.
Animism and their way of life and believes are what makes the identity of the Orang Asli. Any large scale attempt to make them abandon their beliefs in the name of ¨progress〃 is a subtle form of ethnic cleansing similar to the fate of indigenous peoples in Australia, Africa and Latin America who were converted and ¨saved〃 from their ¨sinful〃 way of life by Christian missionaries and government sponsored assimilation programmes.
To a lesser extent, it evokes memories of the ¨anak angkat〃 programmes of the mid-1980s which saw Christian secondary school students from Sabah and Sarawak being sent to hostels in Kelantan and Terengganu to complete their Form Six education.
While non-Muslims were valued stakeholders in the Kelantan administration lead by Nik Aziz, the present State Governmentˇs treatment of the Orang Asli have been atrocious. There is nothing Islamic to the degazetting of reserves and backing timber companies who bulldoze their way into ancestral land, as well as the lethargic response to alarming deaths of the Batek tribe from an epidemic.
Despite assurances by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang that non-Muslims should not feel anxious over a PAS-UMNO alliance that could give rise to a monoethnic government, one is not convinced. This alliance over the past one year have demonstrated an increasing intolerance to diversity because it is politically prudent to do so. There seems to be some measure of success in their approach seeing that the more ethnically diverse Pakatan Harapan government keeps going on the back-foot on issues such as quotas, merit and open competition.
Today PAS moots total annihilation of the Orang Asli culture and way of life in Kelantan. One wonders if they come to power, will it be made a policy to similarly target other vulnerable groups and minorities.