From Terence Netto
The newly formed Umno Islamic council had its first meeting on Monday and came out with a list of its priorities.
Although it did not allude to any specific inspiration, the goals could be attributed to Ennahda, the political vehicle of Tunisia’s world famous Islamic intellectual Rached Ghannouchi.
In May 2016, Ghannouchi, a friend of Anwar Ibrahim, enunciated a new direction for Ennahda.
He pronounced this direction as “We are leaving political Islam. We are Muslim democrats now.”
With the new direction it was clear the party founded by Ghannouchi in 1981, with the Muslim Brotherhood as its inspiration, was equipping itself for participation in Tunisia’s democratising process, begun in January 2011 with the unrest that overthrew the long-standing dictator Zine El Abidin Ben Ali.
Ghannouchi’s Ennahda was in the thick of the agitation for political liberalisation of the dictatorships that were common in the Arab world and that were threatened by the Arab Spring.
But the Islamist parties could not win power on their own; they had to consort with secular parties and this required compromise.
From this collaboration there emerged the awareness of a need for trimmings to Ennahda’s Islamist sails.
Accordingly, the party’s conclave in 2016 determined that henceforth it would be content to concentrate on being good “Muslim democrats”.
This direction that was decided at the Ennahda conclave did not receive the publicity it deserved in the Arab world, given that no less a renowned Islamist intellectual than Ghannouchi was the inspiration behind it.
Thus, it comes as an interesting surprise that the Umno Islamic Council, in determining its course after the first meeting on Monday, has come up with four guidelines that are an echo of what Ennahda decided in 2016 as its future thrust.
The four are an advisory role in realising Umno’s Islamic basis and purpose as provided in the party constitution; to educate and discipline party members in line with the party’s principles and remain steadfast in being pious Muslims and good citizens; to advise the government to always act according to the Federal Constitution, in which Islam is stated as the religion of the federation; and to guide Muslims to always stay on the true path of Islam and be responsible Malaysians.
Although the council’s chief Dusuki Ahmad did not say anything about who was the inspiration behind the guidelines, it is quite clear that there is an ‘Ennahdaan’ overlay to them.
In a word, the council was saying its role was to see that Umno leaders and members were good Muslims and good democrats.
Implicit is the acknowledgment that there are boundaries to the role it intends to play.
In other words, it is not going to be the ulamak whose dictates are the final thing in the party’s deliberations and actions.
What Ennahda began this Umno council, intentionally or otherwise, intends to follow through.
Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.