Malaysia's racial politics is uprising

Malaysia's identification of the Malay race with the Muslim religion is exacerbating strains within Malaysian society - between Malays and non-Malays and within the Malay community - as both Malay and Muslim identities compete for the majority's political attention.

To much of the world, Muslims and nonbelievers alike, the strength of Islam has been based on two principles: the notion of one god, not complicated by a trinity, let alone by other deities; and a universality that has generally kept it free of the tribal, racial or class notions that underpin some other belief systems.

In Malaysia, however, where political organization has long been largely on racial lines, Islam has at times become a device for use in racial politics, a yardstick for measuring the commitment of competing parties to Malay racial advancement.

Currently attention in Malaysia is focused on now as to whether a person has the right to cease to be a Muslim and become a non-muslim and hence should no longer subject to the Shariah courts. At the most obvious level it is a clash between a secular Constitution that guarantees freedom of religion and the notion of apostasy -that a Muslim must remain Muslim - in a country where Islam has a privileged position.

The identification of race and religion was understandable when the Malay sultanates had to stand up to the impact of British colonialism and the Chinese and Indian immigration that the British fostered. The Malay privileges were created in the first instance to protect Malay political dominance and advance economic equality at a time when the Malays were poor relations to the other races in their own land.

But Malaysia is now not only an independent multiracial country but also includes two states on the island of Borneo, Sabah and Sarawak, where Muslims are a minority among the indigenous population.

It's a worry many ethnic Indians share. Making up some 8% of Malaysia's population (Malays make up about 60 percent, ethnic Chinese about 25 percent), Indians are historically underprivileged compared to other ethnic groups and have long felt discriminated against, particularly by a Malays-first affirmative action policy instituted after independence in 1957. "The community is backward, the schools are dilapidated.

Indians are the last in the line for jobs, scholarships, health benefits,". Hindraf, modeled after right-wing Hindu nationalist groups in India, is winning support by demanding an increased share of Malaysia's wealth. "For over a decade Indians have been appealing to the government for help to alleviate our poverty but all their appeals had fell on deaf ears,".

"The British brought Indians to malaysia, exploited them for 150 years and left them to the mercy of a Malay Muslim government.