emergence of many powerful NGOs including those espousing
women’s issues, the juggernaut of globalisation, the pulls of
secularism and modernism, the glitter of a capitalistic, hedonistic
and consumer-based economy, the power of the international media
to shape our values, and the overwhelming control that Western insti-
tutions wield over our economic, cultural and educational life, it is
unlikely that Islam will have a ‘walk-over’ in Malaysia and will sweep
away everything in its path. Malaysian society is, and is likely to
remain, a cultural mosaic. Islam in Malaysia will continue to co-exist
with modernity, with Malayadat(custom) and with the dominant
American and European culture that shapes our world-view, our think-
ing processes and our framework assumptions.
74However, Professor Anthony Milner of the Australian National University has
highlighted a 2006 survey which suggested that ‘Islamic identity was gaining
precedence over ethnic identity in the Malaysian Muslim community, with some
73 per cent of respondents choosing Islam as their primary identity marker’.^75
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has sought to ease public concern
by articulating a message of ‘moderation’:
In Islam we have a concept,wasatiyyah, which means moderation
or ‘justly balanced’. It is this spirit of moderation that has made
Malaysia the country it is today, and that I believe will now be the
key to overcoming the challenges we face together as a region. That is
why, at the United Nations last year, I called for a new global move-
ment of the moderates that would see government, business
and religious leaders around the world face down extremism wherever
it is found. Just as you cannot make the world a better place by
passing a law proclaiming that it will be better, you cannot rid the
world of extreme views simply by making them illegal. I have
no doubt we can best foster tolerance and understanding not
by silencing the voice of hatred, but by making the voice of reason
louder and louder.^76
The third development is the fall and rise in the influence of the Malay rulers,
especially the Conference of Rulers, in the political dynamics of Malaysia. Kobkua
Suwannathat-Pian concluded that, by the end of 2008 ,
(^74) Faruqi, ‘The Constitution of a Muslim Majority State’.
(^75) Milner, ‘Contesting human rights in Malaysia’, p. 92.
(^76) Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak, ‘Keynote Address’, speech delivered at the 10 th IISA Asia
Security Summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue, Singapore, 3 June 2011 ,www.iiss.org/confer-
ences/the-shangri-la-dialogue/shangri-la-dialogue- 2011 /speeches/keynote-address/dato-sri-najib-
tun-raza.