By Professor Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi

Amanah is the splinter party from PAS or Parti Islam SeMalaysia. Once upon a time, the members of both parties were together under the banner of Islamic Reformation. Once upon a time, their members are also from the NGO's ABIM and IKRAM. When we speak of Islamic Reformation in Malaysia, the names of ABIM and IKRAM comes forth immediately to the fore as they are the ones responsible to bring the awareness of Islam as a way of life and as a beacon of civilizational change that transcend petty politics of race and religious extremism, the sins of corruption, wrongness of vote buying, sins of abuse of power in public institution as well as the great sin of gerrymandering in favor of one race. Once upon a time, Malaysians of all race and religions saw this and gave their hopes, trust and votes to PAS, Amanah and valued ABIM and IKRAM as part of the modernization of the Malay minds.

In the heyday of Islamic reformation, the names of Anwar Ibrahim, Dr. Siddik Fadzil, Dr. Mohd Nor Manutty, Shaari Sungib, Dr. Siidik Baba, Professor Dr. Osman Bakar and Professor Dr. Kamal Hassan were on the lips of everyone who was concerned about the progressiveness of Islam into the global platform of change towards a humane society. The second front liners contain the colorful names like Dr. Badrul Amin, Dr. Maszlee Malik and Dr. Mujahid Rawa. The third liners were the names of Mohamad Sabu, Khalid Samad, Kamaruddin Jaafar and Salahhudin Ayub. Once upon a time, another giant name as a front liner was Abdul Hadi Awang but he has dropped off this platform and has joined the forces of conservatism and extremism for personal gratification.

The Islamic Reformation was to end corruption, end racial preferences and move towards justice for all, promote moderation, encourage freedom of expression within the boundaries of 'adab', and promote education towards a society of enlightened institutions and people. Such a noble call and such a noble cause.

This noble objective began to fall in 1999 when one of its proponent was sacked and humiliated to the level of absolute indignity in any culture. The first and second lines of leadership in ABIM and IKRAM were hunted, hounded and taken down by the authorities under the watchful eyes of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Mahathir had rode the rise of Islamism with Anwar to fend off the political rise of PAS. Mahathir used Anwar to 'Islamize' the civil service and UMNO just enough to edge PAS off the table and now it was time to push the Reformist all the way under the table. Mahathir was the master player of Malaysian, Malay and Islamic politics in Malaysia.

However, ABIM, IKRAM and PAS carried the noble principles with the iconic Anwar case as the epitome of corruption, abuse of power and the violation of human dignity that were all anti-thesis to the ideals of the Islamic Reformation. The three entities collaborated for 10 years after Anwar's imprisonment until cracks begin to appear in PAS where the ulamaks or traditional religious scholars like Hadi began to work with race based interest entities in violation of the original creed of reformation. It took another 10 years for the Islamic Reformation to die to be replaced by Islamic conservatism and extremism as the mainstream package of Islamic salvation. This new package was reformed by entities such as ISMA. PAS and UMNO into a narrative of distrust with Malaysians and especially the Christians, Chinese and the DAP. The new package of Islamic salvation began to allow terms such as 'Cina Babi', 'pendatang' and 'musuh-musuh Islam'. The new package of Islamic salvation seems also to include and allow for murders, kidnappings and corruption as well as abuse of power in the name of 'saving Islam'.

When PH came to power, I had expected that the Islamic Reformists who are then enjoying the fruits of their labor to continue the battle against the conservatives and extremists. Instead, they were too busy becoming ministers and polishing their expensive official cars. They thought that by keeping silent on Malay and Islamic issues, they would not disturb the hornet nest. But the hornets were already disturbed by the fake news cranked up by the extremists and conservative middle class. Amanah, ABIM and IKRAM sat on the side lines waiting to be appointed as Vice Chancellors, Ministers and other perks of the offices. The abolishing of the Sedition Act was delayed, the AUKU act was delayed, the Printing Press Act was delayed and racial quotas were continued instead, fake news were not dealt with, the minority groups were not supported as per the principles of Islamic Reformation. The excuse given were, I am too busy, I have to follow what Tun M does and We have to appease the Malays.

Now that these Islamic Reformists are out of office and government, they should rise and take the bull of conservatism and extremism by the horn. There should be ceramah on webinar every single day talking about how corruption is a great sin and will destroy the Malays, how abuse of power will stunt the growth of all Malaysians especially the Malays, how Islam forbids name calling and considering citizens of the same country as enemies, how Muslim should help the poor from all religious faiths, how Islam promotes freedom of speech and dignity for all humans and how to save the environment from unsustainable development growth which is a great sin under Allah.

To change Malaysia, the Islamic Reformist of Amanah, ABIM and IKRAM must take center stage and take the middle class Muslims who are stuck in a trench of conservatism and extremism, without knowing either! Middle class Muslims just want to be good people but they are presented with a toxic package of Islam that will destroy Malaysia. The Islamic Reformists must retake the platform and replace the packages of Islam with an Islamic package of tolerance, compassion and progressiveness.

Only the individuals that started and propagated the wave of Islamic Reformation can turn the tide against Islamic Conservatism and Extremism. If these Reformist won't step up to the plate to do what must be done, then Malaysians should not give them a single vote in GE15. It is a huge mistake if the Reformists think that the easiest road is to follow Tun M and wrestle power from the PN. If PH succeeded to take power away from PN by means of the jumping of frogs system, that would still not resolve the problem of religion in modern Malaysia. As with the campaign against COVID-19, people are fed daily diet of social distancing, sanitizing and hand washing until they can spout the commercials, religious lectures and TV program Talk Shows from memory in terms of containment of the virus spread. Similarly middle class Malays must be fed a regular diet of Islamic justice, compassion, tolerance and enlightenment towards a civilized nation of many cultures and faith as her ultimate strength in morality, economics and sustainable growth.

Nothing else will change Malaysia.

(Professor Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor at a local university.)