AB Sulaiman – An Indomitable Writer

I came to know Bakar only in 2022 – during a dinner gathering – but we are now thick friends.

When I released my first book on geopolitics titled China’s Arduous Journey to Earn Its Place, From Mr Q to President Xi Jinping, I decided it was to be made available only to those friends and acquaintances whom I thought might be interested to read what I had written. Major Ng Chun Ho, my university mate, thought it would be good if I could also extend copies of the book to some of his fellow old boys from the Royal Military College. A dinner was duly arranged. Tycoon Tan Pau Son played host and one of the guests was Bakar.

Bakar had some kind words for my book, even though the book was quite China-centric. He also extended me a copy each of the three books he had published.

I thought the arguments in the books were unusual and deserved wider dissemination. Therefore, no sooner had I finished reading them than I began to pass the books around. I do not know where the copies are now, even though one of them was autographed specifically for me.

Bakar and his first three books

His books carry his name as ‘AB Sulaiman,’ which I thought was odd. Our natural tendency would have been to address him as Sulaiman. I believe Bakar is a non-conformist and was already thinking of using ‘Sulaiman’ as the family surname and he was perhaps honouring his father as the first in the lineage. I may be wrong, though.

Bakar was born in 1943 to a rural and yesteryear family in Kampung Selayang, near Batu Caves. The kampung still exists today but is surrounded by trappings of modern urban life.

In his occasional visits there he is usually overwhelmed by a mixture of joy and trepidation. Joy in the sense that the village has also arrived; trepidation in his belief that modern life requires modern thinking which appears lacking in the people there.

To him, this could well define the essence of the Malay of today – an individual or group living in the open and secular world of science and technology, yet maintaining a thinking norm of conservatism, conformity, and affinity with the hereafter. He genuinely believes this does not bode well for the Malay individual and the nation in the future.

HUMAN THINKING AS PRACTISED BY THE MALAY SOCIETY

As an ardent observer of human foibles, Bakar often focusses his attention to the political goings-on in this country. To him, on the one hand, Malaysia has all the promises of a bright future; on the other hand, virtually all its political, economic, social, recreational, intellectual and educational endeavours seem to portray that it is a country that is still stuck in racial and religious rhetorical run-ins. Quite naturally this begs the question, what is going on?

Bakar has had an explanation. The seed of this divide was sown by some leaders who ran the country championing a motto or mantra “untuk agama bangsa dan negara” (for religion, race, and nation). His first three books were written out his concerns over this. And yes, we do have a federal government now, but to Bakar this sense of superiority dies seem to linger on. Bakar wants the Malays to act more confidently and competently to face the future world. Hence, the fourth book. 

In his first book SENSITIVE TRUTH IN MALAYSIA, A Critical Appraisal of the Malay Problem (2013), Bakar argues that thinking is not a standalone word; it should be linked to KNOWLEDGE and TRUTH. He further splits Knowledge into two domains: DEFINITE and INDEFINITE. The former is where its information has been ascertained as true by people and the latter is when it is not or has yet to be. Ditto TRUTH, which he also splits into two – universal and cultural. The former is when its information is supported by facts, while the latter is supported only by opinions, views, speculations.

He opines that Malay thinking is largely dogmatic and religion and race are one. Being dogmatic, this thinking enjoys Intellectual monopoly, where the so-called authority rules supreme. To Bakar, this encourages the formation of weaknesses. And being under this intellectual monopoly, the community is not looking at the future. Bakar fears that this is pulling the people down to mediocrity.

Bakar’s second book KETUANAN MELAYU, A Story of the Thinking Norm of the Malay Political Elite (2018), raised the observation that the country was then led by a set of agenda-based leadrs who literally cemented the Ketuanan Melayu concept. 

He cited how the teachings of great scholar Imam al-Ghazzali (1058 – 1111) should be applied. To Bakar, Islamic thinking has seen glorious days. From the late seventh century to (roughly) the thirteenth, Islamic or Arabic thought ruled the known world. Arabic was the scientific, the progressive language of the era especially in mathematics and medicine. Baghdad and South Spain built universities. Islamic scholars claim this period as the Golden Age of Islam. There is nothing more for existing or future scholars to delve into or explore. The doors of Ijtihad seem to close in the 13^th century. And it has missed out much of the scientific revolution since then.

He observed that the Malay claim that their intellectual background and history equate that of Islam. Islam came to the shores of the country at around 1403, i.e. after the doors of Ijtihad were closed. This is to say in turn that Malay thinking was in no way privy to the rapid changes experienced by the world.

Bakar cited May 13, 1969, when riots broke and the Malays used the old ways of thinking – of religion and race, especially, as the means for promoting the superiority of Islam and the Malay ethnic entity.

The end result of all this, to Bakar, is entirely predictable. Zaid Ibrahim called the Ketuanan Melayu leadership “Mafia regime.” Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah lamented over the ‘non-professional’ attitudes of the Malay. Mariam Mokhtar called the adherence to religion more of a cult than a belief. They were hinting Malay thinking is on fast track to mediocrity.

Bakar said he authored his third book out of boredom – in the thick of the COVID19 pandemic lockdown. Wouldn’t the crisis be developed into an opportunity for the Malay polity to develop a positive change in thinking, he asked in LOOKING INTO THE ALTERNATE MALAY UNIVERSE, Crisis and Opportunity in a Pandemic (2021).

The answer was a No to him; the period had instead brought the situation to a new low.

The lockdown took place on March 18, 2020. In those early days, the country’s fatality rate of new cases per day was among the lowest in the world; unfortunately, the government went ahead to hold a state election in Sabah. Soon the daily figure jumped to the twenty-thousands and Emergency was declared on Jan 12, 2021.

When the pandemic was in full swing, the government devised various means to combat it. Many restrictions were introduced and implemented. But sadly, many of these restrictions were broken by the leaders themselves. Some leaders were caught eating durian in public, others caught visiting other parliamentary colleagues.

All these misconducts were committed around the suspicion of corruption. The people were agitated. There so much intellectual dishonesty. There is so much loss of trust between the people and the government. The government was running on a trust deficit.

Muhyiddin Yasin resigned as Prime Minister on August 16, 2021, paving the way for Ismail Sabri Yaakob to take over a couple of days later.

Bakar’s hope that the pandemic crisis would serve as a catalyst for change was dashed.

The fourth title PEMIKIRAN MELAYU KOLOT ATAU PROGRESIF? (2023) was written in response to promptings by some readers who felt that his books should be made available in Malay. This book is the result of this encouragement.

Do get hold of Bakar’s books to appreciate his passion to help bring down cultural hurdles.

 

LIM Yu Book

Disclaimer: The views expressed in AB Sulaiman’s four books are strictly his; they have been paraphrased in the above article to reflect them. I, out of my respect for racial and religious harmony in Malaysia, do not condone anything that is deemed hurtful to any race or religion in the country.   

 

AB Sulaiman’s Own Synopses of His Four Books

1.    SENSITIVE TRUTH IN MALAYSIA (2013) 381 pages. A Critical Appraisal of the Malay Problem.

I do believe we humans are all the same. The differences between us are of course history, geography, and climate surroundings. But we differ in thinking. This writing analyses human thinking.

Thinking is not a standalone word. For it to mean something it needs to be combined and linked with some other words which in the case of this writing are two, knowledge and truth.

Knowledge is split into two definite and indefinite. The former is where its information has been ascertained as true by people. The latter when it is not or not yet.

Truth is similarly split into two, universal and cultural. The former is when its information is supported by facts, whole the latter is supported only by opinions, views, speculations.

Traditional thinking.

This is when indefinite knowledge is passed down from the old generation to the young with no questions asked. Truth is cultural.

Rational thinking

This is when an individual reasons by following the principles of cause and effect. E.g. “Heavy rain up in the mountain is causing flood in Taman Sri Muda.” Truth can be s mixture of facts and opinion.

Scientific thinking

Scientific thinking is objective thinking where knowledge is truth of the universal kind.

Western philosophers like Bertrand Russell contend that:

i.              Traditional and rational thinking belong to dogma.

ii.            Scientific thinking to science.

Malay thinking

Malay thinking is dogmatic, as explained below: 

i.              It has penchant for religion. It has made efforts to equate Syariah law with the Federal constitution. It goes to Islamise the country. It pushes the envelope when applying Syariah law.

ii.            It is ethnocentric. It was reported in the social media Harussani Zakaria, former Mufti of Perak, stating that “The Malay race is special from other races because they are related to Islam where the Malays are Islam.” This was made in a public gathering in Shah Alam on October 22, 2011.

iii.           The central authority (i.e. government) holds power. It abuses power with impunity.

To illustrate I cite the setting up the National Feedlot Corporation in 2006. Its purpose was to slaughter 8000 cows a year thereby reducing the need to import so much beef into the country. It was reported RM250 million was budgeted and fully disbursed. The Accountant General’s report on 2010 stated NFC has performed badly. It slaughtered only about only 3000 cows, far short of target.      

Intellectual monopoly

Being dogmatic, Malay thinking enjoys Intellectual monopoly, where the central authority (i.e. government) rules supreme. It encourages the formation of weaknesses: 

i.              Poor ART in governance. ‘ART’ is an acronym for accountability, responsibility, and transparency, applied generally in democratic government settings. The NFC case above shows that ART is largely missing.

ii.            Abuse of power. Look back to the time of Nazri Aziz the then Law Minister, who proposed to table the Peaceful Assembly Bill. The Bar Council the body that maintain and improve, manages, the country’s law, was against it for some reason. Nazri dismissed this dismissal by saying “The Bar Council does not represent the views of the people.” His party “has 140 MPs in Parliament”, thereby suggesting the Bar Council has none.

Being under intellectual monopoly, Malay thinking is blocked from the forward march into the future. Instead, it pulls the people down to mediocrity. Here are some examples, their details are widely known:

i.              The level of education has gone down.

ii.            The civil servant-to-population ratio is ridiculous.

iii.           Poor professional morality.

iv.           Corruption at the highest levels and involving astronomical amounts.

·          

2.    KETUANAN MELAYU (2018) 175 pages. A Story of the Thinking Norm of the Malay Political Elite.

This second book raises the observation that the country is led by the conservative and dogmatic Ketuanan Melayu government. As is well known, it runs like the religion of Islam, the Malay race, and nation. It is a loyal imitator of Islamic thinking.

Revelation and Reason

Revelation is the teachings, directives, made by God to mankind. Reason is man’s ability to understand Revelation. Islamic logic and philosophy equate Revelation and Reason into one. Here’s how the logic is explained:

i.              God Revealed His messages generally referred to as Syariah to mankind.

ii.            God gives mankind the ability to Reason so as to enable him to understand, appreciate, and observe Syariah law accurately and properly.

Teachings of Imam Ghazzali 

Imam al-Ghazzali (1058 – 1111) is one of the greatest muftis, scholars, philosophers, logicians, in Islamic history. He is highly revered even to this day. He demonstrated how the logic is applied in real life.

i.              Knowledge.

Ghazzali contends that knowledge is of two kinds, natural and acquired. Natural knowledge is one revealed by God to mankind since the time of Adam, otherwise known as Syariah law. Acquired knowledge is that by man through his perception, observation, study, research, and experiment.

Ghazzali teaches that acquired knowledge is useless without the other just as the light is rendered useless when the light of the eyes is closed.

ii.            Futility of physical laws.

Ghazzali teaches that it’s futile to believe that the world runs on physical laws. To him there is no cause and effect, no continuity from one moment to the next, for God destroys and recreates the world after every instant in time.

Lest we are confused, Pervez Hoodbhoy author of Islam and Science (1975) provided an example of what this means. He related Ghazzali’s explanation on the burning of cotton: 

This we deny, the agent of burning is God through His creating the black of the cotton and the disconnection of its parts …. And it is God who made the cotton burn and made it ashes …. for fire is a dead body which has no action.

Golden Era of Islam

Islamic thinking has seen glorious days. From the late seventh century to (roughly) the thirteenth, Islamic or Arabic thought ruled the known world. Arabic was the scientific, the progressive language of the era especially in mathematics and medicine. Baghdad and South Spain built universities. Islamic scholars claim this period as the Golden Age of Islam. There’s nothing more for existing or future scholars to delve into or explore.

Closing the doors of Ijtihad

Yes, Islamic scholars contended there’s nothing more for existing or future scholars to delve into or explore. This means that there’s nothing more left for independent reasoning (or Ijtihad). So much so that their thinkers closed the doors to Ijtihad. This took place (roughly) at around the 13^th century.

Scientific Revolution

History tells us there was a drastic change in human thinking taking place in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. This was when humans began to understand nature. With this understanding comes control, and control means the ability to convert or use its principles into tools and equipment otherwise known as technology.

All these ushered the advent of the Renaissance, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, progress and development of political systems and ideologies. All these are the bedrocks of modern life. And the ‘Islamic’ mind is closed to it most probably due to Ijtihad.

Call this passive involvement, unintended consequences, or sheer bad luck. But ever since the Scientific Revolution until the beginning of the 21^st century very few Islamic states (like Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia) could boast their economic status at par equal to advanced economies, like Norway, Sweden, Australia, or the United Kingdom.

(Modern Islamic states like Saudi Arabia and UAE are wealthy but this is due to them having huge reserves of oil).

Malay thinking.

The Malay claim that it’s intellectual background and history equate that of Islam. Islam came to the shores of the country at around 1403, i.e. after the doors of Ijtihad were closed. This is to say in turn that Malay thinking was in no way privy to the rapid changes experienced by the world.

When the May 13, 1969, riots broke, the Malays used the old ways of thinking – of religion and race, especially, as weapon for promoting the superiority of Islam and the Malay ethnic entity.

Two Acts were tabled and made into law:

i.              New Economic Policy (1970).

ii.            National Culture Policy (1971).

The NEP has been given ample coverage commentary in books journals. The second NDP has not. Here, I wish to highlight some pertinent details.

i.              Malaysian culture is to be based on the culture of the indigenous people.

ii.            The elements of other culture judged suitable and reasonable may be considered as Malaysian.

iii.           That Islam will be important part of national culture.

 I do stress though that these two laws are rather racist, bigot, and dogmatic in form and substance.    

Road to mediocrity 

The end result of all this is entirely predictable. Zaid Ibrahim called the Ketuanan Melayu leadership “Mafia regime.” Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah lamented over the ‘non-professional’ attitudes of the Malay. Mariam Mokhtar called the adherence to religion more of a cult than a belief.

They were hinting Malay thinking is on fast track to mediocrity.

·          

3.    LOOKING INTO THE ALTERNATE MALAY UNIVERSE (2021) 223 pages.

Crisis and Opportunity in a Pandemic.

I authored this book out of boredom being locked up in the Coronavirus-19 pandemic lockdown. It flashed in my mind that the Chinese character for crisis is the same with opportunity. Wouldn’t the crisis be an opportunity for the Malay polity to develop a positive paradigm shift?

The answer is no. The period had brought in the worse of happenings.

Election in Sabah

The lockdown (MCO, Movement Control Order) took place on March 18, 2020. In those early days, our rate of new cases per day was among the lowest, and the government was mulling whether or not to go ahead with a state election in August.

When this intention was announced many concerned citizens voiced their disapproval. They were not amused, in fact, alarmed. “Too soon,” they say. But the election took place anyway.

The pundits were right. Before the election, the country chalked about 2000 cases per day. Two or three weeks after the figure jumped to 9000 cases. Before too long the daily figure jumped to the twenty-thousands.

Declaration of Emergency

When the daily figures went up the ceiling, the government declared Emergency on Jan 12, 2021. The people were puzzled. Declare an emergency? This would mean the suspension of Parliament and laws can be passed without due process. There were the immediate talks of corruption involving the procurement of suitable vaccines.

Intellectual dishonesty

When the pandemic was in full swing, the government devised various means combating it. Many restrictions were introduced and implemented. But sadly, many of these restrictions were broken by the leaders themselves. Some leaders were caught eating durian in public, others caught visiting other parliamentary colleagues.

All these misconducts were committed around the suspicion of corruption. The people were agitated. There so much intellectual dishonesty. There is so much loss of trust between the people and the government. The government was running on a trust deficit.

So much so that twenty-two think tanks like IDEAS, ABIM, ASLI were agitating to rescind the Emergency and restore Parliament. Muhyiddin Yasin resigned as Prime Minister on August 16, 2021, and Ismail Sabri Yaakob took over August 21, 2021.

I dared hope for the pandemic crisis be a catalyst for change. But it had been an era of political upheaval. The Malays are determined to live in their alternate universe.

·          

4.    PEMIKIRAN MELAYU KOLOT ATAU PROGRESIF? (2023) 122 pages.

This book was written in response to the instigation made by some readers who have read the three books above. Readers were saying in effect that I might have some valid points which would be of great benefit to the rural folks. These folks do not read in English. So, could you write one in Malay?

This book is the result of this instigation.