Page 42 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

Struggle for moderate Islam in Malaysia 31
‘battle of ideas’ in the Malaysian media, but considering the extent to which
the ‘war on terror’ has been discredited within Malaysia, it would be positively
detrimental for Malaysian counter-terrorism efforts to be linked to the ‘war’.

Debating Islamist Ideology
There is also the risk that the media might infect increasing numbers of the
Malaysian population with militant ideologies. But despite reporting al Qaeda and
JI messages, there is little reporting of the underlying Islamist ideology of JI and the
KMM in the mainstream media. However the media does report on PAS, the non-
violent mainstream Islamist political party. In general terms, the stricter more tra-
ditional interpretation of Islam that is typically defined as ‘Islamism’is closer to the
ideology of militant Islamic groups than the modern, more relaxed interpretation of
Islam that underpins government policy in Malaysia. PAS, though, has gone to great
lengths to try and distance itself from the image of religious extremism.
PAS achieved considerable success in the 1999 election when it won
approximately 60 per cent of Malay Muslim votes, together with political control
of the two northern states of Kelantan and Terengganu. There are no formal insti-
tutional links between PAS and the KMM or JI, although some members of PAS
have been detained for allegedly being members of the KMM. The central policy
of the PAS political agenda is the creation of an ‘Islamic’ state, a form of which
is also an objective of the KMM and JI. Since PAS is part of the democratic polit-
ical opposition, debate on a form of Islamism is part of the mainstream political
discourse in the Malaysian media.
PAS argues that western-style democracy has led to ‘endemic social decadences
and rampant injustices’ and that the common law system is un-Islamic. The
‘Islamic State Document’ which was produced by PAS in 2003 stated that it
would implement Sharia law to achieve the five imperatives of the Sharia: to pro-
tect a Muslim’s beliefs, life, intellect, dignity and property. In seeking to fulfil
these five imperatives, the document stated that ‘all vices and crimes that pertain
to the above stated aspects would be controlled. Man-made laws have been
[proved] a failure in securing the security and dignity of the human race’. Such a
move would put the clerics in a powerful position in the judicial system as the sole
interpreters of the Koran (Far Eastern Economic Review 2003).
PAS was only prevented from introducing Sharia law in Kelantan and
Terrenganu by the intervention of the central government. Measures which it did
introduce, however, were the banning of gambling, dancing and public consump-
tion of alcohol by non-Muslims, whilst men and women had to use separate
checkouts at supermarkets (BBC News Online 2003e).
The potential synergies between political Islamism and the Islamist ideology of
militant groups means that the political dimension of Malaysia’s counter-terrorism
strategy blends with the government’s broader political strategy to undermine
popular support for PAS. As part of this struggle, the government has used the
media to publicize government initiatives in a positive light and to engage in a
battle of ideas with the Islamists.