From: musamn@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:45:06 +0800
Subject: [ppim-net] Forewood by Karim Raslan
Salams & Peace & Blessings on this blessed Friday
dr maszlee & I made mention of karim raslan in our "why PAS need more of dr dzuls"
thus we are forwarding Karim Raslan's piece - columnist in one of the mainstream dailies ; who wrote this foreword for dr dzul's upcoming book, "striving for change"
i think dr jo; dr farouk and our "The Malaysian DNA Conundrum" also narrowly made it into dr dzul's collection of essays - MPF only meddles in medical politics :)
musa
ps this is a privileged preview with kind permission from dr dzul
PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD
Foreword
Karim Raslan
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I woke up on the 9th of March 2008 to a very different
I realized that these new MPs and State Assemblymen were from very different backgrounds than mine. Still, I resolved to get to know them and learn about their respective visions for
It was always going to be a difficult process, but I had particular reservations about the Islamist party, PAS. Like many politically liberal and secular Muslims, I found the party’s advocacy of leadership of and by the Ulama deeply problematic and worrying. As a humanist and proto-novelist (a “tukang cerita”), I was also naturally suspicious of the party’s past attempts to implement moral policing and religious fundamentalism—witness the damage that the “Islamic State” issue has wrought in trying to forge a united oppositional front in Malaysia.
How would PAS fare in the new political landscape? What would it do with its new-found power?
These were the questions that were very much on my mind as I left my privileged enclave and ventured into a different world.
Fortunately for me, my “learning process” was aided by Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, the one-time director of the PAS Research Centre think-tank and the newly-elected MP for Kuala Selangor. Dr Dzul -as I called him - knew I was a skeptic from day one. Nonetheless, we both enjoyed talking, exchanging views and I for one needed to understand more about his world.
Over the years I’ve learnt that he’s an extremely thoughtful Malaysian and yet also a practical man -combining his faith, his scientific background (he studied toxicology in the
In essence, this former academic took me in hand, and introduced me to the world of PAS, which I have found to be indeed a different world, but one that is more inter-connected to mine than I had supposed, and which was deeply intellectual with spiritual roots.
Recognizing my trepidation ‘Doc Dzul’, took me through the process gently but thoroughly, showing me both the strengths and weaknesses of his party. Unfailingly polite and thoughtful, he both acknowledged and epitomised the vast diversity encompassed within the “Malay” community which its own leaders often fail to acknowledge.
Indeed, he in many ways represents the “middle-ground” between Umno’s aristocratic milieu and the conservative, ulama-dominated PAS of old. Here was a
Moreover, he is confident and secure in his Malay and Muslim identity, yet also able and willing to embrace the concerns of his fellow non-Malay and non-Muslim Malaysians.
Knowing what I know now about the party, the “Erdogan” ethos of Dzulkefly and his like-minded colleagues is not so much a new innovation but more a return, a coming full-circle to the PAS that existed in the time of Burhanuddin al-Helmy when it represented a much broader front than it has done in recent years.
He has helped me to understand that PAS is by no means a monolithic party of religious extremists that its critics would have us believe. Its transformation over the years - engineered through hard and patient work - in which it has ironically become more moderate that the ruling Umno, is nothing short of remarkable. This is so much so that it has caused hesitation and unease amongst some of its own leaders.
Indeed, this collection of essays, Striving for Change, is as much about the struggle over the soul of PAS as it is for political power in
Moderate and articulate Malay-Muslim voices like Doc Dzul are so very important in
One can only wish him well.
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