Malay political operatives are always accusing each other of being race traitors. Malay political operatives are always claiming that the Malay polity will lose its power to non-Malays. What Helmi wrote is merely taking this position to its logical extreme. Honestly, people have either overtly or subtly implied what Helmi said in social media outlets.

Worse of all, political operatives who claim to champion “universal religious values” of inclusivity throw those ideas under the bus when in power.

This is what the Selangor state administration said last year as reported in the press: “The Selangor government will continue its efforts to monitor, detect, and enforce laws against any individual involved in promoting religious liberalism and pluralism, to safeguard the sanctity of Islam in the state.”

This is what Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in 2022: “In my speech (in Jakarta), I said there are certain issues that I might not necessarily share, but on core issues of Islam, modernity, inclusivity, we are on the same page.

“How do you compare this to Malaysia? I think Malaysia lacks that sort of tolerance. Here, they just say ‘we disagree with you because you are a liberal’, ‘you are a plural’… I don’t think they have a clear understanding of what they are talking about.”

Connective tissues

First off, we were a progressive secular democracy before the ethno-nationalists used race and religion to turn this country into a “moderate” Islamic state.

Those nascent values of secularism and egalitarianism, which meant something to nation-building, were ditched by the ethno-nationalists to create political and religious hegemony. Shamsul and Malays like him detract from hegemonic narratives of Malay unity.

What these race and religion-based parties have done over the years is chip away at the secular foundations of this country, enabled by non-Malay power brokers for self-serving interests.

By their very definition, race and religion-based parties are anathemas to the Constitution, which is broadly progressive, secular and democratic. This is what Malays like Shamsul are fighting against.

Indeed, just look at the Rukun Negara to understand why race and religion-based parties are anathemas to every point in the Rukun Negara. Shamsul rightly points out that the Rukun Negara seems to have been kicked to the curb by the religious and racial supremacists but also by so-called reformers.

The connective tissues between the racial and religious agendas of successive Malaysian governments that desire a narcotised majority and a disenchanted, aggrieved minority have everything to do with the gerrymandering and unequal weighting of votes.

How can we have a progressive majority when every institution and every political operative confirms that the majority in this country have to subscribe to a certain mode of thinking and support a certain kind of Muslim leader?

Now you understand why Malays like Shamsul or those advocating any kind of deviation from fascistic group are demonised.

More’s the pity that a young man whose quote opens this piece finds no traction with the aggrieved polity in this country.