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PREAMBLE
To analyse the relationships between Political Islam, capitalism, and class in Malaysia from a different perspective, we shall break down the analysis into five main parts - undertaking a neo-Marxist framework with a focus on The Dialectics of Dependency concept to illuminate each of the inter-related dimensions.
With independence, the then Federation of Malaya was accepteded as a secular state (Kessler; Thomas; Pepinsky; Musa; Balasubramanian; Colonial Office statement dated May 23, 1957 at the London Conference Talks; with Islam being the official religion, but shall not impose any disability on non-Muslim nationals professing and practising their own religion (memorandum to Reid Commission, 27th September 1956, ibid.).
After the 1969 political upheaval post-May 13 riot, the ensuing governance pivoted to an ethno-cultural Malay nationalist direction, with ethno-cultural reforms like the Rukunnegara, constitutional amendments and the New Cultural Policy, the New Economic Policy, and the emergence of ethnocapitalism among Malay capitalist elites.
By 2011, Dr. Mahathir had said that Malaysia is already an Islamic state and a model one at that to other Islamic nations, (Malaysian Bar Council, 26th June 2011). In May 2014, Premier Najib even branded humanism, secularism and liberalism as “deviant” and a threat to Islam………It had to be stated that many times by preceeding ruling regimes, “Let us make no mistake – the political system in Malaysia is based on Malay dominance. That is the premise from which we should start.” The bumiputra political elites since then had constructed, manipulated and employed nationalist ideologies to answer the national identity question in attempting to legitimise their political power.
Postings during TWTW:
1] Frantz Fanon - the struggle against colonisation, Rebel;
2] China-US Nuclear Talls, Sinification;
3] China's 3rd generation quantum computer, China Academy;
4] STORM's collective papers: T15 is back terminating labour; Identity Politics and Ethnocapitalism; GLCs and GLICs clicked; REITS reeks with financialisation capitalism; Political Islam, capitalism and class
5] MOMENTUM #224 and FRIDAY FILES 7/11/24
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