There are quite a number of liberal Malays especially from where I live. I'm from one of those suburbs where the percentage of English speaking snobs is comparatively high. Though I do agree that the freethinkers are too quite to be seen as we don't really "come out of the closet" and tell the world what we think (for very good reasons).
Honestly, I never really thought much about faith and religion when I was still in school. My school was pretty open and they almost never forced anyone to where the tudung - though my primary school did made sure we did during religious classes. My environment changed drastically when I entered a compartmentalized pre-u scholarship program at a local uni of 60-odd students. 99% Malays. Majority are from MRSM type of schools. And I was literally the only Malay girl without the tudung. Most of them are definitely conservatives who do not seem to see any shades of grey. The girls have an (almost) weekly usrah gatherings (religious talk/chat/class type of thing) which I have tried to surreptitiously not attend - in one of the gatherings that I actually did attend they were discussing about apostasy and how it is an insult to Islam. (I have a vivid memory of a girl trying to pronounce the word "secularists" as if it was some alien word). I felt like I have entered the underworld. These are people who are supposedly going to be studying overseas under scholarships and they will become the future "ambassadors" of the multicultural Malaysia.
By the way that mousy Malay girl with the baju kurung and tudung is real. I have three of them as my housemates (just out of curiosity, why was this in foreign press?). It's a horrible stereotype but stereotypes only exist if there is truth to it.
I must sound like I do not like Malays now (which is of course not true) though I have convinced myself this is how the majority of Malays are like. Gone are my idealistic muhibbah dreams.
Yeap things have definitely changed since our parents' time. Malays are just true-conformists. The sultan converts, we convert. The British came, we hardly put up a fight, we started speaking English, we let them bring immigrants in. Imagine if all these had happen to some proud country in the middle-east. Chaos. The same thing is happening now with all the conservatism and the almost fatalistic view on religion. Well at least that is my take on the current trend.
I find comfort that we have a "comparatively sensible" government. I feel that Badawi is sincerely trying his best to work forward while manoeuvering around sensitive topics. Though I did find the general UMNO assembly quite disturbing by all accounts. (Some digression here)I find the whole Malay privilege thing rather stupid and some politicians are definitely taking it a little bit too far. The fact that they demand "special privileges" just proves that Malays cannot survive on their own in the real world. They should instead "berkobar-kobar" to figure out when they can do away with it to show that we are indeed capable of achieving without anymore help.
Anyway you're right that it is utterly impossible for Malaysia to turn into a Taliban like state (though Kelantan is on its way there). I just hope that the ordinary Malay Muslim can see that not all Malays are Muslims or even practicing Muslims and that religion should be of personal matter and not of the authorities. Basically if a religion was so perfect it wouldn’t need fines and counseling sessions.
My classmates would kill me if they knew I have just wrote all of the above.
no subject
There are quite a number of liberal Malays especially from where I live. I'm from one of those suburbs where the percentage of English speaking snobs is comparatively high. Though I do agree that the freethinkers are too quite to be seen as we don't really "come out of the closet" and tell the world what we think (for very good reasons).
Honestly, I never really thought much about faith and religion when I was still in school. My school was pretty open and they almost never forced anyone to where the tudung - though my primary school did made sure we did during religious classes.
My environment changed drastically when I entered a compartmentalized pre-u scholarship program at a local uni of 60-odd students. 99% Malays. Majority are from MRSM type of schools. And I was literally the only Malay girl without the tudung.
Most of them are definitely conservatives who do not seem to see any shades of grey. The girls have an (almost) weekly usrah gatherings (religious talk/chat/class type of thing) which I have tried to surreptitiously not attend - in one of the gatherings that I actually did attend they were discussing about apostasy and how it is an insult to Islam. (I have a vivid memory of a girl trying to pronounce the word "secularists" as if it was some alien word). I felt like I have entered the underworld. These are people who are supposedly going to be studying overseas under scholarships and they will become the future "ambassadors" of the multicultural Malaysia.
By the way that mousy Malay girl with the baju kurung and tudung is real. I have three of them as my housemates (just out of curiosity, why was this in foreign press?). It's a horrible stereotype but stereotypes only exist if there is truth to it.
I must sound like I do not like Malays now (which is of course not true) though I have convinced myself this is how the majority of Malays are like. Gone are my idealistic muhibbah dreams.
Yeap things have definitely changed since our parents' time. Malays are just true-conformists. The sultan converts, we convert. The British came, we hardly put up a fight, we started speaking English, we let them bring immigrants in. Imagine if all these had happen to some proud country in the middle-east. Chaos. The same thing is happening now with all the conservatism and the almost fatalistic view on religion. Well at least that is my take on the current trend.
I find comfort that we have a "comparatively sensible" government. I feel that Badawi is sincerely trying his best to work forward while manoeuvering around sensitive topics. Though I did find the general UMNO assembly quite disturbing by all accounts. (Some digression here)I find the whole Malay privilege thing rather stupid and some politicians are definitely taking it a little bit too far. The fact that they demand "special privileges" just proves that Malays cannot survive on their own in the real world. They should instead "berkobar-kobar" to figure out when they can do away with it to show that we are indeed capable of achieving without anymore help.
Anyway you're right that it is utterly impossible for Malaysia to turn into a Taliban like state (though Kelantan is on its way there). I just hope that the ordinary Malay Muslim can see that not all Malays are Muslims or even practicing Muslims and that religion should be of personal matter and not of the authorities. Basically if a religion was so perfect it wouldn’t need fines and counseling sessions.
My classmates would kill me if they knew I have just wrote all of the above.
--Mar