The Dysfunctional Malay Society

If the Malays remained behind in the race towards prosperity and success, they have only themselves to blame. If the Muslim family is dysfunctional, it finds itself in that situation, not because they are not conditioned by more severe laws and a more powerful Islamic judicial system.If Malay society is dysfunctional, it it because WE failed to recognise it is out fault in putting up with a leader like Najib.

Why is he that way? We do not have to delve into the complex psychological examination of the Malay. He is that way because of a simpler explanation. They have failed to cultivate themselves, they have adopted the wrong values, and they have assigned wrong priorities.

The Malays should not even be talking about ways to improve their lives if they have accepted their appointment with destiny as being settled. Then there is no reason to improve. You are happy and contented. Being happy and contented prematurely was the main target of attack by Zaaba in the 1920s. He cited that as one reason why the Malays were sleeping while the world passes them by.

Perhaps the Malays feel that way; i.e. their appointment with destiny is already reached and settled because everything is taken care of by other people. Material progress is unattainable and so he yearns for spiritual salvation more than immediate gratification. He thinks he cant change the system of dependence. The rentier class mentality is so pervasive that he thinks the primary responsibility of looking out for his lot, lies with UMNO and with others.

Freed from primary responsibility of taking care of themselves with their own efforts and industry, the Malays become voracious propagator of spiritual values and religiosity.

Malays failed to meet high standards of morality because we have not enforced hudud-like laws. We have been too lenient. Malays are that way, because they have not carried out God’s laws. The solution, these people say, is more power to the Islamic judiciary, impose harsher and severe laws. Brutalise them into submission.

The image of Islamic justice then is one of brutality, whipping, stoning, and cutting off hands and limbs. Islamic justice is not about good governance, trust, economic justice, better life, better health, and better education.

This is not what the Holy Prophet taught us about statehood and nationhood.  When he entered Madinah to form the first Islamic state, he called upon the Muslims to first spread peace and security. In modern time that would mean the protection of the individual from the brutality of the state and from tyranny; provide food which ought to be building up the economy and prosperity, build up unity and once these are in the works, strive for spiritual excellence by worshipping while the rest of the world sleeps. He did not say first carry out RUU355 .

We have already seen the effects of enlarged state control over the worldly life of Malays. They have become dependents, uninitiated and indolent. The enlarged control by religious state will lead to the same debilitating results. Eventually, Malays will become spiritually indolent believing that spiritual salvation is settled by others.

Why is it that because of the presence of extensive deterrents and severe laws, people still commit wrongs? We execute someone achieving the permanent elimination of the propagator, but the crime is not eliminated. So do we carry out mass extermination?

Muslim society is dysfunctional in many ways, because we failed to assign priorities. We think, whipping, imposing financial ruins and fines and jailing people are first priorities. The reality is, assigning wrong priorities go against the order of nature and of God’s laws too.

Unfortunately, many Malays lived under a denial syndrome habitat. They blamed others for their failures. The blame game is played out because it is the easy way out and the escape route of the lazy person.

Muslim society is weak because the Islamic legal system is weak. If only the Islamic judiciary has more powers. The Muslims are corrupted because the existing punishments are not severe enough. We must have more power and we must enforce severe laws.

This is not an issue of refusing to enforce God’s laws and refusing that- entails the antagonists being infidels or apostates. It is an issue of protecting the people from the tyranny of some people who wants a monopoly in deciding the religiosity of the rest. Putting more power in the wrong hands leads to more calamity and disaster.

Muslim judges have the stature of second class magistrates in the civil law system. They are of that stature for a reason or reasons. Perhaps we have given power to the undeserving and under qualified. Putting trust in the wrong hands results in ruinous outcome. Perhaps we have constructed a deficient system and infrastructure.

Those people who clamour for more severe laws appear to have a persecutory mentality; they want to punish and brutalise others who do not live up to their own moral standards; maybe there is even a more sinister motive- they want to control society and condition others to compensate for their own shortcomings and lacking. To some, more power and more severe laws are tools to settle scores.

They refused to believe that Muslim society starting with the family is weak because of insufficient moral education at home. If existing laws failed to curb moral crimes among Muslim, the first blame ought to be the family unit. The family unit is the primary source of moral and ethical training. Religion completes the moral and ethical constitution of the Muslim.

The wickedness of the Muslims is traceable to the dysfunctional family unit, uncaring society, and deficient schooling system. Muslim iniquity ought to be traced to the family unit- the values it teaches, the moral conduct it condones and family upbringing. And we have not even touch on the subject of poverty among Muslims, of the state of war and violence among Muslim societies, which elimination ought to be assigned top priorities.

It is the nature of our society to pass on the responsibility of cultivating our moral and ethical constitution to others. Harsher and severe laws do not solve the problems of Muslim depravities and vileness. They have failed in the past.

The classic symptom of a backward society is putting blame on others for its own shortcomings and failures. At one time the Arabs blamed the Jews for their failures. Perhaps they still do. They blamed everyone except themselves, their leaders and their debilitating social habits. If we attack the Arabs, they accuse us of attacking Islam.

When Najib is exposed as being the mastermind behind the theft of billions though 1MDB, there are some people who explained that it is only an unproven lie and accusation from the opposition. Failure to recognise and accept that Najib is actually a bad PM is the main cause of Malay failure. Najib is not the creation of the opposition meanness.

Bernard Lewis has written a book about this behaviour. The Muslims called him an orientalist- a disparaging term enjoying lasting adoption-suggesting such a person is lying about the Arabs, a natural enemy of Islam and so forth. Bernard Lewis has been accused of being an agent for Israel and a representative of western civilization, planted in Muslim societies to destroy that society from inside, most notably by way of devastating the Muslim mind.

The Malays in our country share that finger-pointing behaviour too. They blamed the Chinese for their failures. The Chinese are out to replace the Malays they screamed. Once they do, the Chinese will destroy what the Malay government has accomplished and destroy everything that is dear to the Malays. The Chinese through the evil DAP will abolish the special position of the Malays, do away with the Malay language, will abolish the monarchy and horror of horrors, will persecute Islam. They will want to be the prime minister as though the Premiership is reserved for a Malay from UMNO.

For the religiously inclined, I wish to point out that the reason for their failures is because they have abandoned simple principles in politics.

That will be in the next posting.