RE-APPRAISING SECULAR-ISLAMIC POLITICS IN MALAYSIA: LOCATING THE CASE FOR COMMON CITIZENSHIP by REGINA LIM A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This dissertation analyses the process of de-secularization of the Malaysian state. It identifies the political role of Islam as an important element in explaining how the Malaysian state sustains the language of special ethnic ‘rights’ to negate the ideal of common citizenship in Malaysia. The historical dominance and constant politicization of Islam reinvents the notion of special citizenship ‘rights’ for the majority Malay citizens, which has serious impacts upon equal opportunities and fundamental liberties of minority citizens. This process is further buttressed by legal apparatus that separates Syariah jurisdiction from civil courts, leading to unequal public access to justice and public deliberation in favour of reasons grounded in religious doctrine. Drawing on Rawlsian-informed critique of power, the thesis advances previous work on Malaysian democracy to critically assess the role of religion in politics that defends state- sanctioned differential citizenship rights. The condition of pluralism in Malaysia is an important case study for a robust understanding of the value of secularism as a principle of state practices. In doing so the thesis makes the normative claim that religion should not reside within the state where it can be politicized with the cost of justifying differential citizenship in a multi-cultural democratic society. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Problems, aims and objectives ................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Background ............................................................................................................................. 5 1.3 The framework to capture the secular-religious polemics of the Malaysian state ................ 11 1.4 Contemporary contentions .................................................................................................... 18 1.5 The arguments sketched out .................................................................................................. 19 2 Approaches to state power and the use of reason .......................................................................... 24 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 24 2.2 Power, ideology and public reasoning .................................................................................. 28 2.3 Research questions ................................................................................................................ 31 2.4 Legitimacy, stability and the public reasoning of secular/religious dynamics ...................... 37 2.5 Religious power and the use of reason .................................................................................. 48 2.6 Capturing the process of de-secularization ........................................................................... 54 2.7 Collection of data .................................................................................................................. 56 3 LOCATING SECULARISM ........................................................................................................ 58 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 58 3.2 Separation thesis and the public role of religion ................................................................... 61 3.3 Conduct of the state and the citizens as the agency of secularism ........................................ 69 3.4 Secularism and the historical debate of Islamic state ............................................................ 76 3.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 80 4 COLONIAL TERRITORIES AND DISPARATE STATE PRACTICES: FROM BRITISH MALAYA TO MALAYSIA ................................................................................................................. 83 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 83 4.2 Merging the historical narratives of Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak ........................................ 84 4.3 The conception of the secular state, the Malay Kerajaan and religious forces ..................... 88 4.4 The business of governing and the politics of belonging ...................................................... 98 4.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 124 5 POLITICAL TRANSITION FROM SUBJECTS TO CITIZENS .............................................. 126 5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 126 5.2 The cultural conversion and the differentiation of colonial subjects .................................. 131 5.3 Post-war left-wing movement and the politics of the right of abode in Malaya ................. 141 5.4 Conceptualizing Political ‘rights’: From colonial subjects to citizens ................................ 145 5.5 Ideological preamble to the definition of citizenship .......................................................... 152 5.6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 160 6 MALAYSIA: THE FRACTURED NATION-STATE ............................................................... 162 6.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 162 6.2 A fractured vision of nation-state ........................................................................................ 165 6.3 The secular state and differential rights in Malaysia ........................................................... 168 6.4 Ideological dominance of Islam-Malay and fractured citizenship ...................................... 173 6.5 Separation of Singapore from the Malaysia Federation 1965 ............................................. 181 6.6 The Constitution and Malaysia (Singapore Amendment) Separation Bill, 1965: The erosion of parliamentary democracy ............................................................................................................ 187 6.7 Constitutional restrictions on free speech after 1969 ethnic riot: the cultivation of self- censorship in the public political culture. ........................................................................................ 192 6.8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 199 7 RE-POSITIONING THE POLITICAL ROLE OF ISLAM AND THE DE-SECULARIZATION OF THE MALAYSIA STATE ........................................................................................................... 201 7.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 201 7.2 De-secularization of the state .............................................................................................. 206 7.3 Selective government intervention in the structuring of economic nationalism via the New Economic Policy in the 1970’s ........................................................................................................ 211 7.4 The 1988 amendment to Article 121(1) and judicial lacuna ............................................... 215 7.5 The quest for Islamic State .................................................................................................. 229 7.6 Contesting the de-Secularization of the Malaysian state ..................................................... 234 7.7 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 270 8 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 274 8.1 Further reflections on the secular-Islamic discourse ........................................................... 274 8.2 The Malaysian scenario ....................................................................................................... 282 8.3 Wither the secular state in Malaysia? .................................................................................. 291 Appendix I ..........................................................................................................................................