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Introduction
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
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1 INTRODUCTION CIVILSOCIETY,DEMOCRACY,AND THEPUBLICSPHERE(S)INMALAYSIA Thisbookisconcernedwithcivilsociety’sreactionstosomeofthenegative impacts of political, legal, and social Islamization in Malaysia. I examine howdifferentgroupsofpeopleinMalaysiahavesoughttocounterthreats tothepublicdomainandtotheircivillibertiesasaresultofauthoritarianism ,especiallywhenitislinkedtosocial,political,andlegalIslamization. Iexaminethechallengesthatmembersofcivilsocietyfaceinengagingin theirworkinMalaysiaandIalsodescribethevariouswaysthatactivistsseek toovercomethechallengestheyencounter.Itrytoilluminatethecreative waysinwhichmembersofcivilsocietybothmakeuseofexistingpublic spacesandseektocreatenewspaces. The scholarly interest in civil society outside the West is linked to thepositivecorrelationthatisperceivedtoexistbetweencivilsocietyand democracy. Democracy — and more specifically, liberal democracy — is now the normative form of government, and the extent to which States deviate from the ideal of liberal democracy is the extent to which they are frequently regarded by scholars and other governments as deficient. Totheendofjudgingthestateofdemocracyinagivencountry,thehealth of its civil society is often regarded as a key indicator. Civil society and democracy are often regarded as mutually supporting if not mutually causal. 1 01 I&AM.indd 1 4/22/10 9:29:51 AM 2 IslamizationandActivisminMalaysia Whatconstitutescivilsocietyis,however,difficulttopindown.There are contemporary and classical ideas about what civil society is. But as SalvadorGilnernotes,thereiseven“nosuchthingastheclassicalconception of civil society” as there are, among others, the Lockean, Hegelian, Hobbesian,MarxianandGramscianunderstandingsofit(1995,p.304). Some,however,mightcallforcautioninusing“civilsociety”altogether in trying to understand subaltern or counter-hegemonic politics in Malaysia.Owingtotheimprecisenessof“civilsociety”evenwhenconfined todescribingaEuropeanphenomenon,someauthorshavesuggestedthat civilsocietyisaconceptthatscholarsshouldbeallthemorewaryofwhen usinginAsiancontexts.WayneHudsonnotesthatwhereas“civilsociety” was a term that was developed after the phenomenon it described came intobeinginWesterncontexts,inAsia,thatwhichitissupposedtodenote isstilldeveloping(Hudson2003,p.15).Perhapsabettercautionistobe awareofthefactthatcivilsocietyanddemocracyalikeareideasthatare descriptive in some instances, prescriptive in others, and simultaneously both descriptive and prescriptive in yet others. Indeed, while recognizing the flaws in the concept of civil society, John L. Comaroff and Jean Comaroff, while writing with regard to Africa, also recognize that civil society“serves,almostaloneintheageofneoliberalcapital,togiveshapeto reformist,evenutopianvisions”(1999,p.33). In short, in Africa as in other places, “civil society” evokes a polythetic clutchofsigns.Anall-purposeplaceholder,itcapturesotherwiseinchoate —asyetunnamedandunnameable—popularaspirations,moralconcerns ,sitesandspacesofpractice;likewise,itbespeaksascholarlyeffortto recalibrateworn-outmethodologicaltools,andtofindapositivepolitics, amidconceptualconfusion(ibid,p.3). Given the polythetic nature of “civil society”, the contribution that anthropologycanmaketoitsstudyis,asChrisHannhasnoted,tobe concerned with analogues to the discourse in non-European cultural traditions, and with the interaction of these specific cultural ideas with the putative universalism of civil society as this idea is exported across the globe. Ethnographic research would focus on how these ideas are manifestedinpractice,ineverydaysocialbehaviour(1996,p.2). Thefocusthenofthisbookisonthreedistinctbutoverlappingrealms ofcivilsocietyactivisminKualaLumpur,Malaysia.Theserealmsarethelaw, socialactivism(includingprogressiveIslamicactivism),andelections.Those whoIdescribeinthefollowingchaptersworkinacountrythatisrecognized bycommentatorsasauthoritarianandinasocio-politicalclimatetending 01 I&AM.indd 2 4/22/10 9:29:52 AM [54.224.100.102] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 05:42 GMT) Introduction 3 towardsIslamicprimacyandconservatism.Idescribethevariousdiscourses theydeployandfieldsofactiontheyengagetogainsayconstrictions...