"While Indonesia is making huge progress, we are rewinding and the democratic space is going back to the Mahathir era of the 1990s," says Malaysia's opposition treasury spokesman, Rafizi Ramli, during a visit to Australia on Monday. "We have not recovered from last year's election."
There is more than democracy at stake. A professor of political science at Monash University's Malaysian campus, James Chin, says: "In Malaysia, politics is being hijacked by political Islam. It really worries me. They are putting Malay supremacy together with Islamic supremacy.
The foundation stone of the perennially ruling party was always racial discrimination – special favour to native Malays over all other citizens, including the country's sizeable Chinese and Indian minorities.
But now it's pursuing policies of religious discrimination as well, says Mr Chin: "Previously, they tried to regulate the body and behaviour of Muslims; now, they are trying to regulate the body and behaviour of non-Muslims too."
He contrasts this with Indonesia, where a secular state does not impose Islamic standards on other faiths. It's one thing to fine Muslims for drinking alcohol, says Mr Chin, but now there are attempts to penalise non-Mulsims taking part in Oktoberfest in Malaysia.
More @ Sydney Morning Herald
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