保守主義の危機

母国では保守原理主義が急速に力を伸ばし、社会を占領するのである。特にイスラム教徒であるマレー族の若者たちが、イスラムを再現しようというスローガンで、数多くで宗教団体にリクリートされ、団体に入ったらその団体の考え方を頭に吹き込まれて、視野が狭くなってしまい原理主義者になってしまうと言うケースが多くなってくる。

これは著者の立場から見れば非常に危険性を持っている社会的な現象なのである。マレーシアは独立してからずっと多民族国家、或いは多様性を持っている国というアイデンティティで国家を発展させてきた。しかしながら、マレー族が人口の過半数であるマレーシアでは、やはりマレー族が政治的権力を占領しているのでマレー族の意志にしたがってマレーシアが立国された。

それでマレーシアではイスラム教が国家宗教になっており、その方針があるためマレーシアの文化の発展、そして教育制度がイスラム教から大分影響を受けてきた。学校に通っているムスリムの女子学生がヒジャブを校則としてかぶらせたり、ムスリムの学生がイスラム教学という科目を必修科目として履修させたりすることは、マレーシア人にとって当たり前なことだとみなされ、誰にも反対の声が聞こえない。そもそも反対する人々は恐らくいないだろう。

イスラム教学で学生がイスラム教に関する知識を学ぶことができると言う良い面は事実である。しかも、イスラム教の教えが理解でき、その理解から道徳を持つ人物になった学生達も大勢いる。しかしながら、やはりイスラム教の教えの基で世界を見るようになるので、イスラム的価値観を持っている若者たちが、他の角度から世界を見ることが難しい、ということも恐らく現実である。イスラム教の教えで、イスラム的な考え方で世界を見ないのは恐らくだめなことだと考えられるので、そういう教育を受けた若者たちがイスラム的な考え方を持つことしかできなくなるのである。

これは危険性が高い社会的な現象である。イスラム教学で習った内容は恐らくコンベンショナルな考え方なので、保守主義或いは原理主義には近いものをムスリムの学生達が勉強させたのである。それゆえ、保守主義に近い考え方を持つ若者たちが増えている。で、保守主義的な考え方を持っている団体に入っていてもしょうがないと、著者が思っている。

しかし、世界史をみていけば分かるように、保守主義は個人自由を奪い、そしてアカデミックの自由を制限させ国家の発展を壊してしまう。しかも、保守主義者も恐らく様々な派に所属しているので、派の差異によって競争してしまい、平和を滅ぼす恐れがある。また、ムスリムでない人々もイスラム教の強い社会（国家）に飽きて他の国に移動している可能性もある。これは母国の多様性にとって損である。

それゆえ、著者は保守主義の危機を見逃してはいけないと思う。しかし、著者のようなイスラム教学の教育を受けながら世俗自由主義者である若者たちが恐らく少ない。少数派であるムスリム世俗自由主義者はどうしたら保守原理主義者の力を抑えて、マレーシアの多様性を保障し、なるべくその多様性をより豊かにさせることができるのだろうか、と著者は考えるべきことだと強く思っている。

Gawai 2012

-I'm bummed out. Maybe it's because of the summer. Maybe it's because my Korean friend is in the f***ing army of the beloved South Korea, in the name of the fight against the Northern Red Brothers, that's actually pretty much a dead fight, leaving me here alone to face the life as a student in a very tough university (which despite of its supposed high rankings, is always the subject of criticism by some Israeli student who studies in that very university and he happens to be in a my circle of acquaintance), facing the Japanese people whom I don't get very friendly with and fellow Malaysians whom I don't really enjoy either.

-Maybe it's because last Friday was Gawai and I didn't get to feel the festival feeling that comes with it. Maybe it's because I don't have enough money. Maybe it's because Bashar's regime in Syria is massacring women and children in Houla. Maybe it's because Hosni Mubarak is being sentenced to life imprisonment, and Egypt is now facing a tough time, having to choose between a former general who served in the old guard and a conservative Islamist who didn't seem like a right choice, but who am I to judge for the Egyptians? Maybe it's because I am going to be 22 years old soon.

-Maybe it's because of the fact that I am doing a terribly bad job as a President of MSAJ Kansai, not being competent, creative and assertive enough as a leader, plus my forgetfulness that gets worse as I got older. Maybe it's because I am going to be back in Malaysia in 2014, but this time I don't have a plan as to what happens after that. Maybe it's because more and more of my friends are married. (This early marriage thing sucks, it makes you feel old and unwanted.) Maybe it's because of my tendency towards secularism and apatheism. (Yup, I don't think that atheism is the answer to all our religion-related problems) Maybe it's because the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that doesn't seem to end (but from my observation, it seems that now is relatively calm compared to the early 2000s during the Second Intifada), maybe it's because Malaysian politics is turning increasingly undecipherable to me.

-Amen.

Terlalu mudah bagi sekumpulan insan untuk diindoktrinasi. Apalah yang akan terjadi kepada kita ini wahai kesayanganku.

Biased Malaysia Episode 1

-Some acquaintance asked me about the effect of Malaysian education on the minds of people of Malaysia. He asked this due to the trends of the Facebook updates (which I don't think should be taken seriously; most of the time they're just rhetoric repeated again and again with varying levels of effect) that worries him nowadays.

-Malaysia is constitutionally a monarch. Plus, it enshrines Islam as the official religion. Which I think is quite a bad idea that undermines the ideals of a nation founded in the principles of democracy. But nevertheless, it is the case that Malaysia is a constitutional Muslim monarch which has an official understanding of religion.

-Plus, Malaysia was formed by the right-wing politicians of UMNO (the historical UMNO, not the current UMNO which, while still right-wing, has evolved in nature) and these right-wing politicians felt a need to carve a country equipped with the right education, culture and also the ranks of citizens who are both pro-UMNO and pro-monarch.

-Yet, politics is never that easy. There are always leftist thinkers, those politicians who felt out of touch with both the monarch, the Malay right-wingers (for various reasons) and the establishment of an official religion of state, arguing that Malaysia needs to be secular, and a secular republic at that.

-Yet the leftist are always associated with the ideology of socialism-which is bad luck for the leftists, as this socialism is ultimately linked with Marxism-the ideology of the ultimate enemy of the state. Parti Komunis Malaya. Double bad luck; this party is also heavily Chinese in composition, hence the right-wings which form the bulk of the Government felt that the Chinese population is some form of demographic bomb that would threaten the ideals of Melayu Islam Beraja.

-Hence the Chinese became the target of the right-wings, albeit in a rather soft way. Instead of singling out Chinese as targets of discrimination, the right-wings establish a form of affirmative action called the Bumiputera-favoring policy. They define what a Malay is, they define what Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera is-and they tell everyone that this is for the betterment of the Malaysians. The Chinese are of no help; after the PKM was singled out as the enemy of the state, the rise of Chinese right-wings ("We demand Chinese schools with Mandarin-language as the medium of instruction," sound familiar?) who collaborated with UMNO as MCA has made the integration between Malays and Chinese difficult.

-(Indian and other Bumiputeras are of course in the whole process, but still, they are being left aside by historians and politicians alike, so I can say little)

-But then came the Islamists. Parti Islam Se-Malaysia. This party, influenced by a lot of things (Ikhwanul Muslimin, Iranian Revolutionaries, etc) was formed initially as the voice of those who felt that UMNO was not Malay enough, not Islamic enough, and they gained influence over the years, through their strategies of infiltrating the mosques, the Islamic education classes-all of which has effected the political and societal ideals of Malays.

-And due to these ideals, we have our education today.

To be continued....(when I'm not that lazy)

Life

Life is a constant struggle for survival in the most morally possible way for humans not just as an individual, but also as a whole species. And the survival of human species demand that the human species evolve and reform themselves as part of the collective whole, a collective that extends race, economic group, nationality and religion. Biologically, humans have little need for biological evolution; they are already equipped with more than enough capability to endure not just the hardship and the extremes of the Earth, but also the intellectual capability to plan and enhance their physical capabilities to face even the near-vacuum space.

Yet, humans are in a very deep need to reform their moral sensibilities.

引き篭もり

今日は引き篭もりをし始めてから三日目となっているのだ。
全然喜ばしくない事実である。
ずっと頭が痛い。体もだるい。肩も凝った。睡眠時間もおかしくなっちゃった。夕方に就寝したら深夜に起きたりしていて睡眠時間がばらばらとなっているのだ。
知り合いにも会いたくない。誰にも顔を会わせないように、部屋から出かけたくない。
うつ病になったかも。精神医学者のところに診断を半分の気持ちで受けてもらいたいけど、お金がかかっちゃうからやらない。

Daylight

There is no Day, there is no Night. There is no Up, and there is no Down. There is no Life, and there is no Death, there is no Black and White, there is no Left and Right, there is no Brightness and Darkness, no Cold and Hot, there is no Past, Present and Future, there is no Time, nor there is Space, there is no Self, there is no Other, there is no Knowledge, Wisdom and Strength, there is no Rich and there is no Poor, there is no Lucky nor there is Unlucky, there is no Freedom nor there is Slavery, no Choice nor Predestination, there is no Noise, nor there is Silence, there is no Love, there is no Hatred, there is no Justice nor there is Injustice, no Inside, no Outside, everything we see, feel, taste and love is not there, everything that seems to be there isn't really there, there is only Nothingness, and yet, there is no Nothingness, for there is no Beginning and there is no End, yet no Perpetuation either, every part of the world that we perceive is just what it is--what we perceive, and we can never verify its Truthfulness or Falsity, as there is no Truth and there is no Lie--and nothing really exists, but it exists, full of Contradictions and yet there is no Contradiction.

There is no God Here and yet Here He is.