Which comes first ? Race or religion or both or none?

There’s currently a debate in the Malaysian bloggersphere about the recent election of Nasaruddin Mat Isa, a known conservative to the Deputy President position at the recent Parti PAS General Assembly. Debate has centred on the struggle between the “conservative ulamaks” and the “progressive professionals” factions within the party. Nasarudin’s victory over the popular and progressive Husam Musa has been seen as a victory for the conservative faction who had secretly held unity talks with the much despised UMNO party. Following his victory, there’s now calls within UMNO to engage with PAS under the guise of protecting Malay interests and special rights within a framework whereby both UMNO and PAS are both Muslim parties. Nasaruddin and others within his group has not totally disregard this possibility.

The opportunity to share power even with an enemy can be enticing for some within PAS. Whether PAS will identify and subscribe to core democratic values that Pakatan Rakyat component parties aspire to remains to be seen. It has certainly come a long way towards making itself more “palatable” to non-Muslims and moderate Muslims as well. Mind you, I don’t think for one moment that their Islamic credentials and yearning to impose an autocratic Islamic state has diminished. Is just that there’s a realisation amongst the progressive faction within PAS that it will not get very far if it does not recognise the multi-racial character and changing needs of the population; non-Muslim and Muslim Malaysians alike.

It must be said though that it is always premature for us to assume that most PAS supporters have somehow put their Malay identity on the backburner and have been totally Islamic centric. This cannot be further from the truth. To digress for a moment, even at this recent General Assembly, a motion was passed to ban the activities of the Sisters In Islam (SIS) who have unashamedly champion the rights of Muslim women and women in general in Malaysia. SIS may be seen by some as a feminist Muslim group which is a "NO NO" but for the majority of Muslim and non-Muslim women, they are seen as a progressive lot who have done a lot to lift the debate on gender equality in Malaysia. Suggestions of punitive or rehabilitation measures against supporters of SIS if they do not accept PAS’s view is simply repugnant. If they can’t tolerate dissenting views on gender equality from Muslim women, what are we to expect on dissenting views from Non-Muslims?.

In Malaysia, the ruling BN led by UMNO has always play the race and religion card. When some UMNO leaders came out to suggest that both parties should have unity talks in the interest of "Malay Special Rights and Interests" within the framework of PAS and UMNO being muslim based parties, you would expect PAS leaders to come out immediately and condemn any such notions as abhorrent and racist. Regrettably, this was not quickly forthcoming. If PAS chooses to side with UMNO for opportunistic and Malay chauvinistic reasons, the party will be doomed and will always be in the outer. As one blogger called Chegu Nazir (http://katataknak.blogspot.com/) puts it eloquently when he wrote “PAS is an Islamic party, not a Malay party. The end, end of story. PAS has no business trying to identify itself as a Malay party. The religion is above race. Heck there are more Muslims in China, therefore Chinese, than there are Muslims in this country so Islam is not the sole property of the Malays”.

He went on to add “Islam is universal and not the domain of the Malays and PAS must realise that. Malay unity, if it leads to oppression of others is not Islam. Malay is not important in Islam. Malay is nothing in Islam. In Islam, the teachings of the religion is important. In Islam, equality is important. In Islam fairness is important. In Islam valueing one's partners who seek justice is more important than sleeping with one's foe who happens to be a fellow Malay and Muslim but do not know the meaning of honesty and humanity”.

We all make personal judgments everyday – significant or otherwise – in our daily lives. Our judgements if it has to be made should be based on respect and regard for others, a recognition that we are all different (religious or otherwise) and a genuine attempt to understand and engage with others. The core values of tolerance, compassion, understanding and diversity should be what we should aim and work towards. History is riddled with many examples of conflict and grief when it comes to race and religion. We can do better with the less of it. We can do the right thing and we can do much better without race and religion in the mix.