Political Thought of Malay Thinkers (Part 4)

The Political Thought of Mohammad Natsir

He was born at Kota Alahan Panjang, West Sumatra on 1908. The city was known as educating reform scholars and steep into the Minangkabau tradition. Mohammad Natsir had exposed early in his life on the discourse between those who wanted to keep traditions and those who wanted to bring reform to the Muslim society.

Until 1927, he was educated at primary (HIS) and secondary (MULO) schools that was created by the Dutch for local students. The students were educated in the Dutch language. Apart from that, he was also sent to Madrasah Diniyah to learn Arabic and Al-Quran. He was continuing his study to Bandung at AMS which was a boarding school that teach local students on classical European literature. Since he was from Sumatra, he was being looked down by other students that come from Java that had better school. At first, he was having difficulties understanding Latin, but through hard work, he managed to achieve good grade. 

From youth, he already joined the Union of Young Muslim (JIB) that was mentored by Haji Agus Salim, a prominent figures that regularly works with Dutch government. This organization was focused on the development of young Muslim to study Islam in the right way and prepared them in the environment of Dutch education. He was also regularly writing to magazine Pembela Rakyat to share his thinking about various issues. He was also involved in Persatuan Islam or PERSIS. It was founded by Ahmad Hasan and considered one of the strictest Islamic organizations at that time. In this organization he built relationship with his longtime friends such as Mohamed Roem, Prawoto Mangkusasmito and Kasman Singodimejo. He was committed to the cause of PERSIS that he regularly travel from Bandung to Batavia to attend meeting. His good grades give him a chance further his studies at Batavia in law and could even go to Rotterdam, Netherlands, but he rejected it. He credited to his involvement in JIB and PERSIS to make him more focus on Islamic causes instead of depending to Dutch education.

His political thought had started to appear from his education days since he sees that the Christians was using education to inculcate Western values onto the Muslims and eventually abandoning Islam. He also very critical to the Dutch colonial government that only keen to help Christians building schools, hospital and social welfare while abandoning Islamic organizations.

In relation to religion and politics, he considered the role of religion is important in building the nation. Islamic values is not just for rituals, but important in creating social order and interaction between different religion and tribes in the nation. He also believes that traditional Muslim scholar at that time incapable of facing the larger and more complex ideas from the West that had influencing Muslims. Their understanding of politics had become too narrow. Politics should be considered as ijtihad and open to changes depending on the context. He also sees that a council of experts should guide the society since he believes that musyawarah or consultation is an important principle in Islam and is part of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. teachings.

He also sees that nation-building is not the ultimate goals of Muslims, but to ensure that Islamic law and values will be established and implemented in the individual and national level. The nation and its people were mirrors to each other. We can see how the nations condition if we see its people conditions. His idea has similarities with Burhanuddin al-Helmy where both of them agree that loving an nation is part of Islamic faith.

Although he is not trained in Cairo, he did influenced by reformist thinkers such as Abduh and Rashid Rida. He also thinks that Muslims in Netherlands East Indies does not necessarily need to unite with Muslim around the world politically and creating a new Khilafah. He also believes that Western powers are concerning too much of pan-Islamism, while in reality each Muslim are only concern about their own country problems.

Mohammad Natsir, Syed Sheikh al-Hadi and Burhanuddin al-Helmy, were influenced by reformist thinkers from Middle East especially on their writings. But it was only influential in trying to relate about religion and the realities on nationalism. Rarely do they subscribe their ideas in political implementation and nation-building.

He also agrees that Islamic teachings did not need to regulate everything in human life. Islam should be the core values in the society and politics of a nation should always guide by the Quran. In talking about Islamic nation, he rejected the term theocracy since in Islam there is no priesthood, so it does not necessarily a person of religion holding the power. He really believes in the ideas of democracy and considered it as was to combat despotism and corruption that could potentially be done by tyrant.

He quoted Franklin D. Roosevelt ideas that democracy is a freedom of expression, religion, want and fear. Democracy helps regulate the relationship between different religion and tribes. Democracy also helps to ensure the government did not oppress the governed. He promoted that Indonesia should have separation of powers that the European have in their political system. He also criticizes Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia to try to differentiate between Western and Eastern democracy. Mohammad Natsir said there are only either democracies or no democracy at all. His criticism to Sukarno at that time was a reaction to Sukarno becoming too powerful and tries to create a political structure without opposition to him.

He was involved in Partai Syuro Muslimlin Indoneisa (Masyumi), the prominent Islamic political party in Indonesia and had for a brief of time appointed as the prime minister of Indonesia from 1950-1951. His rise in politics was started when he was involved in Komite Nasional Indonesia Pusat. In the middle of confusion between the surrendering of Japanese, the new Republican government and the arrival of British and the Dutch, he was appointed Minister of Information under Sutan Sjahrir administration. His contribution to the dissemination of information about the government activities was considered important since he was close to the journalist and easily approachable. 

His short stint as Prime Minister was attributed to the failure of Indonesia political system. There are no elected parliamentarian that amended the law that was truly represented by the people. The political parties need to be accountable to the electorate. He has confronted with Sukarno to change the system but Sukarno still believes in the presidential cabinet system. Mohammad Natsir also failed to confine Sukarno as only a figurehead president. Throughout his life, he continues to promote parliamentary system for Indonesia political system.

Mohammad Natsir also quoted Ernest Renan on the idea of the importance of spiritual sense of living and dying together to build a strong nation. This idea is important since Indonesia has thousands of islands with different tribes. He also did not sure if this wide definition of nationalism is enough to guarantee a unified country in the future. He already promoted the idea since the time of Dutch colonials, but it was not taken seriously. His moderate idea also helped to collaborate with nationalist who is not religiously leaned later when he was involved in the government. 

His contribution to Indonesia was silenced in the time of Suharto since his influence among Islamic groups could create a threat to Suharto rule. He was only regarded as Pahlawan Nasional in the time of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on 2008. His role in politics is short and he himself eventually created Dewan Dakwah Islamiah Indonesia where he focuses on politics through dakwah. His political party, Masyumi itself did not itself sustain long but a lot Islamic political leader in Indonesia still tries to associate themselves with Mohammad Natsir ideas and prestige.

Conclusion

There are a lot of similarities on the political thought of Malay thinkers in the early 20^th century. They all agree that there must be a new dimension in approaching the role of religion in politics. Their politics however is varied and most of them although important in instigating a spirit of independence and anti-colonialism, but eventually did not have a big role in leading the new country. Their influence until now is still on the level of intellectualism but not in the level of embracing it by politician. This could be that the political system had changed so much since pre-independence that it needed new political thought for post-colonial political structure. Islam continues to have influence in politics, although not on the level that these Malay thinkers thought it should be.

We should also continue to trace the element of European nationalism and modernity ideas in the Malay thinkers. While a lot of them is critical to the West, but they themselves unaware on how their thinking framework is very much influence by European. In this regard, we should understand Edward Said writings on orientalism and tries to relate it to the Malay world context.

References

Abdullah Firdaus, Mohd Nasir Omar & Idris Zakaria (2015). Pemikiran politik dan kenegaraan Mohammad Natsir. International Journal of Islamic Thought (7).

Adibah Sulaiman, Ezad Azraai Jamsari, Kamaruzaman Jusoff, Noor Inayah Yaakub, Wan Kamal Mujani, Wan Mohd Hirwani Wan Hussain & Zinatul Ashiqin Zaino (2011). Syed Shaykh Ahmad Alhady: A religious education reformist in the late 19 and early 20 Century. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research (7).

Ekrem Bugra Ekinci (2015, June 8). Myths and reality about the printing press in the Ottoman Empire. Daily Sabah.

Ibrahim Abu Bakar (1994). Islamic Modernism in Malaya: The Life and Thought of Sayid Syekh al-Hadi 1867-1934. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press.

Kamaruddin Jaafar (1979). Perjuangan dan Pemikiran Politik Dr. Burhanuddin al-Helmy. Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Kahin, R. Audrey (2012). Islam, Nationalism and Democracy: A Political Biography of Mohammad Natsir. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press.

Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied (2011). A theory of colonialism in the Malay world. Postcolonial Studies 14 (1).

Political Thought of Malay Thinkers (Part 3)

The Political Thought of Burhanuddin al-Helmy

He was born in Perak in 1911. His education includes studying on the pondok in Jambi, Sumatra and enrolling in Madrasah al-Mashoor of Penang, which was established by Islamic modernist thinkers such as Sheikh Tahir Jalaluddin and Syed Sheikh al-Hadi. This was all before 1927. Then he went to India to study homeopathic medicine at Ismaeliah Medical College and Aligarh Muslim College. The situation in India at this time was the struggle Indian political leaders against British colonialism and demanded independence from the Empire. Aside from exposed with independence movement of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, Burhanudddin also managed to travel to Palestine. This was the time that controversial Balfour Declaration was taking effect and destroying the Palestinian homeland. This experience convinced him that colonialism is the biggest threat to the advancement of the Malay world. On the spirit of nationalism and anti-colonialism, Burhanuddin quoted Gandhi that his nationalism is humanity. 

He and Ibrahim Yaacob had envisioned uniting the Malay Peninsula with Sumatra and Java to create a nation called Melayu Raya. They did met with Sukarno and Hatta, two founding fathers of Indonesia when all of Malay Archipelago under Japanese occupation. The dream was shattered when the Japanese Empire surrendered in August 1945. Burhanuddin writes that their involvement with Japanese occupation is only a short term strategy to achieve long term goals. The most important thing at that time is to liberate Malay from British colonialism.

There are 2 books that could be considered Burhanuddin’s thesis statement on politics and nation-building. The first is called Perjuangan Kita and the second is Asas Falsafah Kebangsaan. Perjuangan Kita was written when British was at the process of decolonizing its colonies after World War 2. It touches on the negative effect of colonialism that had impacted Malaya and how it was related to current Malay problems. From there, he also elaborated on how we can struggle to build a new and independent state.

In Asas Falsafah Kebangsaan, he stresses that the foundation of the Malay nationalism is not about whose blood is more pure. Someone can be considered Malay if he or she fights for the independent and prosperity of Malaya. He or she also need to severed ties with his birth nation so that they can focus in one nation only. Burhanuddin’s idea of Malay is unique which he tried to accommodate Chinese and Indian that had been born and raised in Malaya. He also said that the struggle for Malay nationalist had started from the time of Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM), and then evolves into Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKM and PUTERA-AMCJA. Finally they started to create a legal framework with the proposal of Perlembagaan Rakyat.

His writings was influenced both by Islamic and western tradition. He cited Surah Ali-Imran verse 110 as a call from the Quran to humans to liberate themselves from the tyranny of other men. He believes that the Malays used to be the best of nations, but then fall off from the grace because of the action of Western Imperialism. If the Malays were free from the West, then they can finally fulfill their duties as God servant in the world. Burhanuddin also influenced from the reformist thinkers where they believed that to love one country is a part of faith. He also elaborates on the term, ‘asabiyah that was used in the Hadith. Some people interpret it as nationalism and it should be avoided. This was use by some traditional scholars to allowing the continuation of British colonialism. Burhanuddin hits back by saying that ‘asabiyah means extremism or fanatic of only one race. It is not permissible to be fanatic on one race, but nationalism and love of one country should be promoted.

There are several evidences where Burhanuddin ideas may influenced from the socialist movement such as his opinion on the correlation between colonialism and the role of capital. But ultimately all this ideology is still subservient to his Muslim faith. He did quoted Renan and Ottor Bauer when elaborates on the meaning of nation. Although some people speculate it was influenced by Sukarno speech. Burhanuddin is one of the representatives from Malaya to the Bandung conference in 1955. He also believes in the idea on mobilization of proletariat masses and the fact that the British had spread the ideas of Malay indolence to continue justification of European imperialism. These ideas have similarities with other nationalist figures of Southeast Asia such as Indonesia’s Sutan Sjahrir and Phillipines’s Jose Rizal.

In his 1955 speech at Parti Rakyat congress, he stresses that to fight colonialism does not mean supporting communist. He wanted Malaya to be given back his sovereignty before it was colonized by Portuguese, Dutch and British. With this awakening, our nation will be at the same level with other great nation. When he refer the nation, which he called Tanah Air Nusantara, he means encompassing all of the Malay Archipelago. He goes back to the history of Srivijaya, Majapahit and Malacca, where all of these empires was respected and build relationship with kingdoms in India and China. He differentiates Eastern empires with Western empires such as French and British. He believes that Western empires are capitalist in nature, where they exploit the land and negatively impact the local societies. This phenomenon was not seen in Eastern empires where their ruled does not subjugate and devastating as the West.

There are differences of Burhanuddin priorities before and after independence. Before independence, he said that it is hard to revive Islam if the sovereignty of the nation still under non-believers. The first thing is to make ourselves free. But on 1957, he starts to promote that Islam should be the official religion of Malaysia and it should follow the true teaching of Quran and sunnah. When he leads Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) in 1964, he reiterates that PAS struggle is to create a nation and administration that follows the footsteps of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w. 

Burhanuddin is one of the earliest Malay politician and leaders of a political party/ movement in Malaya. But he himself did not make a successful career as politician. At one time he was very radical in fighting British and eventually jailed. When he was the leader PAS, he focus on Islamic politics and manage to push out non-Malays politician to works with him in the time of election. In PAS, he managed to win Besut parliamentary seat in 1959 seat. He was also push out from PKMM that is more left leaning because he was considered by Ahmad Boestamam at that time as too honest and lenient. 

Burhanuddin long involvement in Malays politics had put him in collaboration with left leaning, Islamic inclined and even Malays traditional politician. He is one of the Malays biggest critics on British colonialism. Although he might not realized that colonialism also is a double-edged sword where it eventually contributed to the rise of Malay nationalism and consciousness, something that was promoted by Syed Sheikh al-Hadi. Both of them agree on the point that Malay traditional political structure and religious scholars had broken. But while Syed Sheikh wanted to move forward and introducing Western and modern Islamic element, Burhanuddin wanted to go back to the glories of older Muslim sultanates such as Malacca.

Political Thought of Malay Thinkers (Part 2)

The Political Thought of Syed Sheikh al-Hadi

He was born in Malacca in 1867, which at that time was under British colonial administration. When he was young, he was raised and educated at Riau and was adopted by the Sultan half-brother. His activism journey started when he went to Singapore in 1901 and together with several others Arab-Malay writers, created the first Malay newspaper which is called al-Imam. It was influenced by al-Manar newspaper from Cairo that was headed by Sheikh Muhammad Abduh and M. Rashid Rida, the two prominent reformist thinkers from Middle East. Although he was not prominently a religious scholar, his ideas had helped forward the reformist thinking and movement in Malaya in the early 20^th century.

Apart from journalism, he was also an educator by establishing madrasah (Islamic school) at Singapore (1907), Malacca (1915) and Penang (1919). His idea of Islamic schools at that time was different from traditional school where he tried to infuse it with modern thinking. One of his most successful schools is Madrasah al-Mashoor in Penang. It was one of the first madrasah to teach English language. Several other young intellectuals such as Sheikh Muhammad Tahir Jalaluddin and Syeikh Abdullah Maghribi supported his idea and played an important in realizing his mission.

One of the biggest criticism of Syed Sheikh towards Muslims at the time was the misunderstanding of qada’ and qadar concept. The thinking had infected the Muslims mind by believing in fatalism and determinism. We as a Muslims should return to divine decree which acknowledge the importance of human effort. This radicals thinking is important at that time to free Malays mind from always relying to the British for economics and politics.

Syed Sheikh also writes Kitab Alam Perempuan and Hikayat Faridah Hanum. Kitab Alam Perempuan was a book that focusing on women issues such as the importance of education for girls. He also elaborates on the appropriate relationship between boys and girls and the position of hijab/purdah for women. Hikayat Faridah Hanum is a fictional novel published on 1925 and focusing on a story of a woman who is being pushed to marry a man she did not want and resulted into unhappy marriages. This novel also shows that a woman and man can fall in love because of intellectual and spiritual connection. It is not just a matter of lust. It is interesting to see why Syed Sheikh writes about women either as a guidance to society or creates a fictional character for inspiration. His work might be earlier than any feminist writings in the Malay world, especially in the time when Victorian values still very much strong in British society and its colonies.

His role in becoming publisher and editor of al-Ikhwan, al-Imam and Saudara shows that apart from becoming a writers and educator, he also sees the importance of publishing in disseminating ideas to the Malays. His publication writings had become influential in learning the standard Malay. His publication helped introduced ideas from the Middle East and influenced the Malays on the importance of collaboration for the Muslim ummah. They realized that Muslims around the world was colonized by the West and not just a phenomenon in the Malay world. The usage of publication machine also shows that the Malays had adopted Western technology early on if it was beneficial.

The trend of publishing newspaper, pamphlet and periodicals was only booming in the Islamic world at the end of 19^th century. It is also interesting to see that the Ottomans did not encourage the usage of publication machine because of the protest from calligraphy artist who afraid that they will lose their job. The elites also only prefer books written by hands for aesthetic reasons. They also wanted book to only belong to the upper class and not available to the masses, which attitude that was rejected by Muslim reformer around the world.

Syed Sheikh believes that British government was fair and helped created Malaya that advanced in economy. British managed to take over Chinese monopoly of rubber and tin. Malaya famously becomes the source of rubber and tin for the British Empire. British government had also established banks and several other modern institutions that eventually bring foreign investment into Malaya. He also sees that most British who come to Malaya was among the professionals such as lawyers, doctors, businessmen and the entrepreneur.  

One of the reasons Syed Sheikh was more grateful to the British was because he believes that the Malay rulers and feudal lords cannot manage the country and bring about the modernization. He sees that many Malay rulers were preoccupied with entertainment and dance. They also neglecting their position as the leader of the Muslims and continue to perform things that is forbidden in Islam such as drinking alcohols. These rulers were supported by traditional Muslim scholars and come under heavy criticism from Syed Sheikh. They refuse to reform the education and their way of thinking. These scholars also close their to the Malay rulers’ bad behaviors. For him, Malaya is better off ruled by the non-Muslims such as British who fair and promote justice instead of fall into the hand of those who injustice.

We could say that in this regard, Syed Sheikh may have influence by the ideas and the hegemony of the West. Although he promoted the idea of Abduh’s pan-Islamism, he never sees it contradict with British imperialism. He was quick on blaming the local rulers instead of understanding that the British colonialism in Malaya and the Muslim world in general had created the structural corruption either in politics, economics, education or even the understanding of Islam. The opinion of Syed Sheikh actually is similar to Syed Ahmad Khan in India where he believes that British rule in India is necessary. He even rejected the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and sided with British. But Syed Ahmad Khan rejected Abduh’s pan-Islamism and considered it radicals. In this regard Syed Sheikh agrees that antagonizing British government could result in chaos. Maybe the violence of Indian Rebellion had put a warning to Syed Sheikh and he did not something like that ever happened in Malaya.

Syed Sheikh even uses Quranic verses to justify the continuing existence of British in Malaya. This method makes him the target of Islamic authority under Malay rulers such as Kelantan. His writings was originally forbidden in the state, but overturned by the British governor order.