Just what is the ‘Malay-Muslim identity’?

JAN 11 — Excerpt from Memali Section

“Memali had to be a [public relations] failure on the government’s part,” Z, the former militant schoolboy I had interviewed about six years ago for my column, I Am Muslim, wrote to me in an email. “I was in school then, and you know my history. We all saw it on TV.”

“They weren’t terrorists. They’re just simple kampong folk.”

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Baling is like many small towns in the country. It’s a living Malaysian cliché: Low-rising and not well-made buildings, old government offices built in the 1960s, with quaint old houses scattered here and there. Newer housing projects are far and few, as the roads lead to villages and more villages. Or rather, more village houses.

Ibrahim (standing, far right) was dubbed “Ibrahim Libya” owing to his education in Tripoli. — Pictures by Dina ZamanModern amenities and provisions like a supermarket and KFC lend Baling a rather gaudy atmosphere. It’s a town like Bentong or Raub, whereby local migrants who work in Kuala Lumpur reminisce about the fresh air and how cheap it is to live there. And yet Baling, for all its simplicity, is a historic town.

The communist Chin Peng hid in the primary school; the infamous Baling talks arose from his negotiations with the then premier of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman Al Putra. It is also linked to local folklore: the Raja Bersiung, a cruel character from the Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa.

According to a paper written by Wan Shamsudin Mohd Yusof in 1999, Nostalgia Sejarah Baling di Masa Silam Berdasarkan Beberapa Catatan, Baling’s name derived from two Siamese words, “ban” and “ling”, which mean Kampung Kera or Monkey Village. 

I was in Baling, Kedah, and I was supposed to stay for a week at a sekolah pondok belonging to Ustaz Hilmi. In the end, I was unable to stay there as the pondok had an influx of destitute senior citizens and orphans. A friend had kindly put me in touch with his aunt’s family, and I would keep in touch with Ustaz Hilmi during my stay there.

Mak Teh, a jovial woman in her late 40s, hosted me throughout my stay there. It was a delight to have a visitor from a big city come over, she said. She could take me around in her car with her kids. What was it that I wanted to see? Oh, we could go to Chin Peng’s hide-out. And maybe a healer or so. Her mother-in-law was a healer and could speak in there languages when she healed people. And if I had the energy, she suggested we drive up to Memali and see where it all happened.

“Memali? Memali as in the Memali Incident which happened in 1985? I saw all that on TV,” I said.

“Well. It’s about half an hour away from here. Maybe I can make some calls and we can all go look? Eh, bestnya buat research macam ni! Mak Teh boleh jadi assistant!”

The Memali Incident happened in 1985. I was 16 years old then, and I happened to be watching the news with my parents. The one image that has stuck until today is of an elderly woman rushing at what presumably was a tank, though the camera shot of her was a frontal one. There were police and the army, and trucks. A lot of smoke. My parents didn’t budge from the dining table as they sat glued to the television, watching the incident.

“Abah. Kenapa perempuan tu menjerit Allahuakhbar? Why is she screaming and running?”

My father shook his head. My mother asked the same question.

I cannot remember what he said.

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Ibrahim (centre) was known to be a family man.Ibrahim Libya in his younger days was quite a dapper young man. Based on the photos his family kept, he was quite a dandy, with sharp jackets and bellbottoms. He had been educated in various places such as the University of Tripoli in Libya, hence his nickname Ibrahim Libya.

He had attended Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Weng in Baling before furthering his studies in Islamic studies at Sekolah Agama Ittifaqiah, Kg Carok Putih, Weng and later Pondok Al-Khariah, Pokok Sena, Seberang Perai. He had also studied in India and at Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

When he came back, he and his young family lived in Kuala Lumpur. He worked with Pusat Islam. He even appeared on television to lecture on topics of Islam. He left his job and took his family back to Baling, as he felt disenchanted by the “… materialistic lifestyle the city offers…”

By and large, Ibrahim Libya was known to be a family man and dedicated to the cause of Islam. Moving back to Baling, he soon became known as quite a raconteur, and quite a joker. He had one gift: He could speak to the young, in their language. He understood their dreams and hopelessness.

Soon, his lively usrahs began to attract more and more villagers. He was the 80s version of popular contemporary ustazs such as Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin and Juanda Jaya. His popularity soon reached the city centre of Kedah, and word reached federal level. At that time, Dr Mahathir Mohamed (now a Tun) was the prime minister of Malaysia.

Ibrahim Libya’s rising influence coincided with the early 1980s resurgence of Islam throughout Malaysia. While everyone danced and bopped to the beat of Madonna, Top of The Pops, and punk culture pervaded fashion and politics in the UK, Iran, and young, optimistic Malaysian professionals lived it up at the Hilton’s Tin Mine, the tudung (hijab) and Al Arqam entered into the Malaysian landscape. Stories of Hantu Kum-Kum (a tudung-ed female ghoul who was once a beauty but cursed) spread like wildfire. PAS was a bogeyman and an affront to forward-thinking Malays.

There were also other Muslim separatist movements in countries like Thailand (and not necessarily Iran per se), which may have influenced the then Islamic revival in Malaysia.

“To the south of Thailand in Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim and other student activists inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood formed the Islamist movement Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) in 1971. In 1974 ABIM rallied the impoverished rural youth in Baling to protest conditions also experienced by the Malay-Muslim separatists in Thailand — poverty, government discrimination, lack of political representation. The 1979 Iranian Revolution may also have inspired Islamist ideology within the Malay-Muslim separatists, as this was the first successful Islamist movement that would later inspire many more around the world.

“The encroachment of traditional Malay-Muslim territory by Northern and Northeastern Thai farmers at the insistence of the central government coupled with disenfranchised, well-educated youth helped to spawn the second wave. The Islamic identity of the second wave was not initiated in the southern provinces but introduced and encouraged by the external actors and events described above. Education abroad allowed Malay-Muslim students to network with other students in these predominantly Muslim countries to which they traveled. Through these networks links were formed with Islamist groups such as the Arab League, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Islamic Secretariat, and Partai Islam.” (“Framing the violence in Southern Thailand: Three Waves of Malay-Muslim Separatism”, Sarah A. Jones, June 2007. A thesis presented to the faculty of the Center for International Studies of Ohio University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts.)

To be continued.

* The writer is greatly comforted by the fact that William Dalrymple took six years on average to complete a book. She will probably finish this book when she hits her 50s!

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.