BEFORE any politician takes out his religion card to play it again at the coming 15th General Election, it is worth noting the findings of a 2018-2019 survey conducted by Arab Barometer in the Middle East and North Africa region. Arab Barometer is a non-partisan research network and its Wave Five data showed that trust in religious political parties has fallen by more than half to below 20%, compared with the 2013 figure of 40%. Across the region, more voters are turning away from such parties.
In nine out of 11 countries, supporters of non-religious parties indicated a higher preference for democracy than supporters of religious parties. The highest levels of difference were in Lebanon, Yemen and Algeria. Americans too may have wised up to the misuse of religion. In 2020, they voted out former president, Donald Trump, despite his spiritual advisor Paula White calling on God to strike down Trump’s enemies.
Both in the Arab world and in America, the key issues in recent years are: Climate change adaptation, battle against poverty and security enhancement. But if you play the religion card, you are telling the electorate that you do not have any smart workable solutions. That is why you resort to selling the belief that God speaks and acts through one religion, and that you must vote for the party and candidate that God has chosen.
In Malaysia last year, during a series of by-elections, issues pertaining to race and religion topped the list of topics in social media campaigning. No discussion on climate change, even though the storm clouds were gathering to unleash their fury across the nation in December.
Playing the religion card is highly dangerous for any country. Insurgents who stormed the US Capitol in January 2021 were egged on by social media posts that encouraged them with the prayer: “God bless each of you standing up or praying.”
The greatest long-term danger of the religion card lies in its partisan character and tendency to turn believers of different religions into bitter enemies. Three months before the 14th General Election in Malaysia, the leader of a political party advised believers of one faith to vote only for candidates of the same faith. So, instead of joining forces to enable humanity to overcome its challenges, all our religions will end up fighting and destroying each other.
The religion card is one of three devices used by politicians to exploit a voter’s partisan identity and turn him into a loyal die-hard supporter. These three devices – party, race and religion – serve to harden the divisions in society, eroding its pluralism and destroying its ability to survive cataclysmic climate change.
It is worse in America where supporters of the Republican and Democratic parties are now arrayed psychologically like two armies preparing for a civil war. Their contempt for each other has turned into lethal partisanship, as each side views the other as a threat to the United States. Only two factors prevent them from weaponising themselves to attack each other: A common belief in the global supremacy of America, and a common hatred for China and Russia.
Political, racial and religious exclusivity hardens your mind, to determine the type of information your brain absorbs. Only such information that is aligned to your political, racial or religious views gets in. Your brain shuts out any information that is new and which does not fit into your worldview.
Malaysia’s long-term survival is being threatened by a crumbling diversity. Nature thrives on diversity; without it, ecosystems die. Malaysian citizenry is a social ecosystem that now resembles that of the Japanese, lacking in diverse inputs. Japan used to be World No. 2. Today, it is no longer within the top five nations. Japanese multinational companies lack innovativeness because you do not find diverse cultures embedded in their leadership structure; and in its national aspirations, Japan has only memories of its quality control circle era to fall back on. How many ethnicities are there in the Japanese Cabinet?
Malaysia’s Cabinet has 32 full ministers, of whom 15% are drawn from ethnic minorities; and of the 38 deputy ministers, 23% are minorities. Not bad compared with Japan, but low compared with Singapore’s 35%. This strong measure of diversity at Singapore’s highest level of decision-making helps account for the island’s robust performance in all sectors, notably its currency.
Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, a retired ministry secretary-general in the civil service argued convincingly in theSun, Aug 5 for reinstatement of the old 4:1 ratio for quota of majority to minority races for the civil service. “Otherwise, we will be left behind,” he said.
Any country that fails to leverage on the diverse ethnic, cultural and religious composition of its people will fall behind all those nations that do. This is because civilisations are built upon diversity, and will thrive further if they embrace an even greater range of diversities. Civilisations are a big step-up from hunter-gatherer societies that are entirely homogeneous in being kin-based. All the great civilisations rest on a base of ethnic and cultural diversities.
The challenge for present-day civilisations and nations is to rise higher by embracing religious, political and informational diversity. Pluralism in all sectors breaks down groupthink inbreeding and shakes up complacency as diverse inputs flow in. The pluralistic backgrounds of team members result in cognitive diversity that brings fresh perspectives and hidden angles to light, hence, stimulating breakthrough thinking for innovative solutions and improved service delivery.
As professor of architecture Prof Dr Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi stated in theSun, Aug 2, the worst enemies in Malaysian politics are the parties that “strongly represent a dominant single race and single religion. That is not good for Malaysia”. Days after his comments, it was announced that a new single race-single religion party coalition would be formed. How does such a non-pluralist entity help to manage climate change, which requires a whole-of-humanity approach?
Fortunately, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has a vision of Keluarga Malaysia embodying the value of togetherness to overcome the boundaries of race, religion and ethnicity. It is time to flesh it up so that it does not remain just a slogan.
The writer champions interfaith harmony. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
