CONCLUSION

The cultural politics of religion, race, and nation in Malaysia are central to understanding sociopolitical dynamics, including the fissures in electoral coalitions. In order to “defend Islam,” PAS feels compelled to work together with UMNO, their chief political foe in the realm of electoral politics.

The growing polarization of liberal rights and normative sharia projects has intensified the drive of dominant Malay forces toward a pattern of increasing sharia-tization, a more enchanted modernity, and a heightened emphasis on the Malay-preferred hierarchical image of the nation. To be sure, the Islamic resurgence and the concomitant UMNO and PAS competition over Islamic credentials has been moving things in this direction for some time. However, it is important to note that the hesitant secular nationalist elites, masters of appropriating Islamic campaigns and symbols and feinting at greater substantive Islamization, are being more strongly pushed by numerous social forces in the face of perceived threats to the Malay Muslim–dominated sociopolitical order. Many recent developments indicate that the partially secular format long championed by UMNO is shifting toward greater sharia-tization. The Prime Minister’s Department is formulating new federal policies on apostasy and a sharia court system that will supposedly be on par with the civil court system. In addition, the federal government and the PAS-led state government of Kelantan are currently deliberating a rollout of Islamic criminal laws, including hudud and qisas, in the east coast state. Although I think a full rollout of sharia criminal laws is unlikely under a Najib Razak Cabinet, the Malaysian state is expressing a commitment to implement stronger sharia-oriented policies.¹⁴ Furthermore, the long-term pairing of a Malay Muslim–dominated hierarchical image of the nation with a horizontal image of diverse and equal citizens is being delinked, in favor of a Malay Muslim–led polity (see Daniels 2005). These changes are occurring, in part, due to growing pressure from liberal and human rights organizations.