In an article published on New Mandala, Ooi Kok Hin said that for the past three decades, the politicisation of Islam in Malaysia had been gaining momentum and Muslim-centred politics has played an increasingly important part in local politics.
He explained that dominant, state-sanctioned political Islam would more likely dictate local politics due to two main factors — the Muslim identity and greater population numbers.
Ooi said more Malays were identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, citing a Merdeka Center poll carried out last year.
About 60% of Malays considered themselves as Muslims first, while only 27% saw themselves as Malaysians first, with the remaining 6% identifying themselves as Malay first.
The poll had three identity markers — nationality, religious identity and ethnicity.
“The Malays, by far, saw religion as the most important part of their identity (in comparison to smaller ethnic groups like the Chinese and Indians).”
He added that issues relating to religion would carry a greater weight due to this trend and politicians would adopt the language of political Islam and pander to the religious aspects of an issue as the majority of voters in the country were Malays.
The second factor, Ooi said, was the decrease in the quantity and quality of non-Malay and non-Muslim votes as the Malays will form a larger chunk of the population in one or two generations.
He explained that, in the case of non-Muslims, the value of the votes would be less as they would no longer play an important role in deciding who won an election.
“In an election where most of the voters are Muslims and the most endearing issue to them is Islamic law, then it is perfectly rational to risk all non-Muslim votes in favour of a guaranteed electoral victory.
” The concentration and intensification of Muslim identity, Muslim politics, or political Islam, will be the new frontier of Malaysian politics.”
Ooi also said that the trend of political Islam began in the 1980s when conservative Islam began garnering support from both the political establishment and the Opposition, with Umno and PAS trying to out-Islamise each other during former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s 22-year stint.