Lily Zubaidah Rahim

In search of the ‘Asian way’: Cultural nationalism in Singapore and Malaysia

Singapore and Malaysia are recognisably Southeast Asias most impressive economic performers. Their economic achievements have been accompanied by the maintainance of relative political stability within a challenging multi‐ethnic social milieu. Not surprisingly, both nations have been widely promoted as models worthy of emulation for developing economies. Since the late 1980s, leading political elites in Singapore and Malaysia have been assiduously promoting the ‘Asian way’ model of political development. Offered as an alternative to the liberal democratic ideal, the ‘Asian way’ discourse has provided authoritarian governments with a theoretical basis for resisting domestic pressures for greater political democratisation. Whilst acknowledging the role of the ‘Asian way’ discourse in affirming and validating the cultural identity of East Asians in a global community that is largely dominated by Western cultural and institutional forms, the paper seeks primarily to examine the contradictions, paradoxes and ...

Governing Muslims in Singapore's secular authoritarian state

The governance of Muslims in Singapore has been strongly shaped by the secular authoritarian states commanding influence over Islamic institutions, such as the main religious bureaucracy Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (the Islamic Religious Council), and reliance on draconian legislation, such as the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (MRHA), the Sedition Act and the Internal Security Act. Inter alia, these laws attempt to inoculate religion against politics, regulate religious activity and restrain the development of an autonomous Muslim civil society. The contradictions associated with the MRHA and no-tudung (‘headscarf’) policy are analysed within the framework of the authoritarian states assertive secularism. The significance of localised socio-economic and political grievances in motivating a small number of Singaporean Muslims in supporting radical Islamist ideology is also considered.The governance of Muslims in Singapore has been strongly shaped by the secular authoritarian states commanding influence over Islamic institutions, such as the main religious bureaucracy Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (the Islamic Religious Council), and reliance on draconian legislation, such as the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act (MRHA), the Sedition Act and the Internal Security Act. Inter alia, these laws attempt to inoculate religion against politics, regulate religious activity and restrain the development of an autonomous Muslim civil society. The contradictions associated with the MRHA and no-tudung (‘headscarf’) policy are analysed within the framework of the authoritarian states assertive secularism. The significance of localised socio-economic and political grievances in motivating a small number of Singaporean Muslims in supporting radical Islamist ideology is also considered.

Islamic reformation discourses: popular sovereignty and religious secularisation in Iran

Disputes over the outcome of the June 2009 presidential election in Iran rapidly developed into a contest about the legitimacy of the Islamic state. Far from being a dispute between religious and non-religious forces, the main protagonists in the conflict represented divergent articulations of state–religion relations within an Islamic context. In contrast to the authoritarian legitimisation of an Islamic state, the Islamic reformation discourse is based on secular-democratic articulations of state–religion relations. This article focuses on the ideas of four leading Iranian religious scholars who advocate a secular-democratic conceptualisation of state authority. Disputing the religious validity of divine sovereignty, they promote the principle of popular sovereignty based on Islamic sources and methods. This reformist conceptualisation is rooted in the notion that Islam and the secular-democratic state are complementary.

FRAGMENTED COMMUNITY AND UNCONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENTS

Abstract Aseans political elites appear to lack the will to pressure the SPDC regime into resolving the political crisis in Burma through democratic means. To better understand Aseans position, the factors that have underpinned Aseans commitment to preserve its principle of nonintervention and state sovereignty despite repeated human rights violations in Burma are analyzed. To what extent is Aseans commitment to the principle of nonintervention in keeping with the dominance of authoritarian states in the otherwise less than cohesive regional body? Is the recently unveiled Asean Charter an elite-driven initiative that is not intended to challenge the nonintervention principle? In addition to addressing these questions, this essay will conclude by analyzing the dynamics underpinning Singapore-Burma relations with a view to highlighting Aseans fragmented community that is dominated by authoritarian states not committed to promoting democracy and human rights, much less to resolving the political crisis in Burma.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

In the wake of the 1997 regional economic crisis, but before 11 September 2001, many Southeast Asian governments were besieged by formidable challenges to their legitimacy These challenges have been arguably mitigated by the political capital provided by the September 11 event as many regional governments have joined forces with the United States in its “war against terror.” These governments have uncovered the existence of regional terrorist organizations, such as Jemaah Islamiah, with alleged links to the al-Qaida network. With the ostensible routing of the al-Qaida network in Afghanistan, Southeast Asia has been postulated as the new front line and base for Islamic militants. While international forces have undoubtedly contributed to the rise of political and militant Islam in Southeast Asia, this article will highlight the importance of localized sociopolitical and economic sources of Muslim grievance and the vexed issue of authoritarian governance. It is imperative that these issues be seriously addressed if the ideological appeal of radical and militant Islamists is to be effectively mitigated.

Singapore-Malaysia relations: Deep-seated tensions and self-fulfilling prophecies

“…Venice was something unique among nations, half eastern half western, half land, half sea … between Christianity and Islam, one foot in Europe, the other paddling in the pearls of Asia …. Her vocation was commerce; her countryside was the sea …. her function was that of a bridge between east and west; her obsession was political stability … Venice was a sort of police state, except that instead of worshipping power, she was terrified of it, and refused it to any single one of her citizens; and by these means, at once fair and ferocious, she outlived her rivals, and preserved her republican independence until the very end of the eighteenth century … [she maintained a] strange sense of isolation, of separateness, which had made her for so many centuries unique in Europe … She was the most expert and unscrupulous of money-makers, frankly dedicated to profit … No enemy has ever succeeded in taking Venice by storm … She was never loved … She was always the outsider, always envied, always suspected, always fe...

Electoral theocracy and hybrid sovereignty in Iran

ABSTRACT Post-revolution Iran is uniquely based upon the contradictory principles of divine and popular sovereignty but with ultimate authority delegated to jurists. At the same time, the theocratic basis of clerical dominance is rooted within a pluralistic and decentralised theological tradition peculiar to the Shiite establishment. Despite the tutelary institutional arrangements engineered by the ruling clergy, elections have generated unexpected outcomes and unleashed power and policy shifts. Emphasising the political dynamic generated by elections, this paper examines the uncertainties stemming from electoral processes that have been constructed by conflicting electoral and theocratic principles. In developing the concept of electoral theocracy, the paper highlights the paradoxes underpinning the hybridity of Iran’s clerical and electoral authoritarian system of governance. These hybrid features have remained largely neglected in the literature on electoral authoritarian regimes.

The Crisis of State-led Islamization and Communal Governance in Malaysia

It is not commonly acknowledged that most Muslim-majority states possess secular-based constitutional and political frameworks. In these multireligious societies, the status and role of Islam in the state and political system were purposefully restricted, with only a limited number of references to Islam incorporated in their constitutions. In particular, the status of sharia (Islamic law) had been restricted to the realms of personal status law. Thus while Islam may have been pronounced the national religion, postcolonial elites envisioned a largely ceremonial role for religion. Acknowledging the secular foundations of the constitution, Malaysian prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman pronounced shortly after independence in 1957 that “this country is not an Islamic state as it is generally understood, we merely provide that Islam shall be the official religion of the state.”1

Reclaiming Singapore's ‘Growth with Equity’ Social Compact

Singapores long-serving Peoples Action Party (PAP) government suffered from a major electoral setback in the 2011 general election and subsequent by-elections. The high-growth population policy, underpinned by the influx of migrants and foreign workers, has strongly fuelled the groundswell of public discontent and is commonly perceived to have contributed to widening income disparities, wage stagnation, and cost of living pressures. This article attempts to make sense of the PAP leaderships dogged commitment to the high-growth population policy despite the electoral backlashes and policy criticisms by prominent public intellectuals and others closely connected to the PAP establishment. It considers Singapores high-growth population policy and widening income disparity within the context of the authoritarian developmental states shift away from the ‘growth with equity’ social compact. The article also examines the impact of widening income inequality and other policy lapses on the legitimacy of the PAP government as the clamor for a renewed social compact based on ‘growth with equity’ gathers momentum in the repoliticized polity.

Discursive Contest between Liberal and Literal Islam in Southeast Asia

Abstract The paper focuses on the impact of global Islamic revivalism and state Islamisation initiatives on the cultural practices, institutions and laws in Southeast Asias Muslim majority states of Malaysia and Indonesia. In particular, the assault on adat and the reconfiguration of legal and political structures with the intrusion of Wahabi-inspired literal Islam from West Asia are considered. As the discursive contest between literal and liberal or progressive Islam will have a major impact on the direction and outcome of the protracted War on Terror, it is imperative that the discursive advances of the former are countered by reinforcing democratic structures and institutions and addressing localised sociopolitical and economic grievances. In the long term, liberal Islams inclusive and flexible worldview based on ijtihad and universal humanism are likely to prove more effective than the reliance on draconian security-orientated measures in the protracted War on Terror.Abstract The paper focuses on the impact of global Islamic revivalism and state Islamisation initiatives on the cultural practices, institutions and laws in Southeast Asias Muslim majority states of Malaysia and Indonesia. In particular, the assault on adat and the reconfiguration of legal and political structures with the intrusion of Wahabi-inspired literal Islam from West Asia are considered. As the discursive contest between literal and liberal or progressive Islam 1 will have a major impact on the direction and outcome of the protracted War on Terror, it is imperative that the discursive advances of the former are countered by reinforcing democratic structures and institutions and addressing localised sociopolitical and economic grievances. In the long term, liberal Islams inclusive and flexible worldview based on ijtihad and universal humanism are likely to prove more effective than the reliance on draconian security-orientated measures in the protracted War on Terror.