DR Mahathir Mohamad had failed to unite Malaysians under the Rukun Negara, said Yayasan 1Malaysia chairman Chandra Muzaffar in a forum at Shah Alam.

Chandra, speaking at the Moderation and Administration of Islam in Malaysia forum said the former prime minister had ignored the Rukun Negara in his pursuit towards the Islamisation of Malaysia.

“There isn’t a single speech that Dr Mahathir made where he emphasised the importance of the Rukun Negara,” said Chandra who was four of the panellist at the forum.

The forum was part of G25’s “Reforms for a progressive Malaysia” at the Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) in Shah Alam today.Chandra, who was detained under the Internal Security Act during the Mahathir-era Ops Lalang crackdown, said the Rukun Negara is where 69 individuals from different backgrounds had come together from different backgrounds to prove a point that unity is not impossible in Malaysia.

“But many of us don’t even know that the Rukun Negara consists of five principles and five aspirations.

“And the aspirations are very important because the principles are linked to the aspirations and the principles are there to enable us to move towards these aspirations,” he said.

Chandra said Dr Mahathir was influenced by “a certain ideological understanding” of what Islam is, and governed the nation towards that understanding.

“That is why you have Islamic Universities, Islamic Banks, Islamic Insurance, why he brought in young Islamists like Anwar Ibrahim to strengthen his leadership.

“Because I think Anwar had a certain notion that reinstated Dr Mahathir’s attraction to the capitalistic notion of Islam,” said Chandra, who was also a deputy president of Parti Keadilan Nasional, the precurssor to today’s PKR.

He also said the rivalry between the late Ghazali Shafie and Dr Mahathir was also the reason why the Rukun Negara was sidelined, as Ghazali was the head of the sub-committee that drafted the Rukun Negara.

Prior to his death on January 24, 2010,  Ghazali served as home and information minister from 1973 to 1981 and was then appointed as foreign minister until 1984.

Chandra also said that Mahathir’s Vision 2020 in 1991 had sidelined the Rukun Negara by way of “seeing his mark in Malaysian history.”

“Look carefully at Vision 2020, five out of the nine challenges are actually related to the Rukun Negara.

“He wanted to come out with something as his own, which is seen as his mark in Malaysian history,” he said.

Vision 2020 was introduced by Dr Mahathir in the Sixth Malaysian Plan in 1991 that outlined nine strategic challenges with the aim of achieving a self-sufficient industrialised nation by 2020.

Its nine strategic challenges are establishing a united Bangsa Malaysia, creating a secure and developed society, developing a mature democratic society, establishing a caring society, ensuring an economically just society and establishing a competitive economy.

He added that there were other reasons too that the Rukun Negara lost its popularity. One being the Malay “Islamic ethos” started by Mahathir and the non-malays being unable to relate it to their ethnic interests.

“(The Islamic ethos) became largely to form a symbol rather than content, a notion of Islam that wanted a projection of the religion, that is from the 80s onwards.

“So the Rukun Negara, if you look at the five aspirations of Unity, Justice, Democracy, Liberal Society and Progressive Society, somehow the Islamic ethos doesn’t fit in.

“There is nothing in the Rukun Negara which gives the non-malays something concrete where they can identify.

“Unlike with the constitution where you have Article 152, about their right to study their own language or Article 11 to practice their own religion.

“And if you look at non-Malay politics it always gravitates towards issues and concerns towards their ethnic interests,” he said.

The Forum was moderated by Asiah Abu Samah, a member of G25, and had Aston Philip Paiva, a law expert, Zainah Anwar from Sisters of Islam and Syed Farid Alatas a lecturer as their panellist along with Chandra. – January 27, 2018.