Review 22.6
24 April - 10 May , 1997

"Get Out Israel, We Hate You"; "Damn The Zionists", "Crush The Jews" - so jeered the placards in downtown Kuala Lumpur this month. The provocation: the Israeli cricket team, possessed of a fairly unimposing record in international competition. Yet their two-week Malaysian tour in early April highlighted the growing contradictions between pragmatic and increasingly militant Islam in Malaysia.

The Israeli team arrived in Kuala Lumpur as the first delegation openly associated with Israel to visit Malaysia, whose unwavering hostility has precluded the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The series of anti-Israel demonstrations in the capital that followed provided headaches for police and organisers of the 22-nation tournament sponsored by the International Cricket Council.

As a precondition for hosting the ICC Trophy tournament, Malaysia was obliged to admit the Israeli team. Yet Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir - who has just returned from Saudi Arabia where he received the King Faisal award for his contribution to Islam - probably anticipated a negative reaction, argued that the granting of visas to the Israeli team enabled Malaysia to "point out to Israel and Israelis that followers of different religions in Malaysia can live together in harmony."

Yet the protests began almost immediately. Only a day after the tournament began, on March 25, some 300 members of the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) carried anti-Israel placards through Kuala Lumpur and later burnt two Israeli flags before dispersing. Two days later, a feature article in The Malaysian Star by Associate Professor Muhamad Nur Manuty, President of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia, and Professor Chandra Muzaffar, Director of the Just World Trust, expressed concern that the Israeli team presence may be a precursor to diplomatic ties between Malaysia and Israel. Under the provocative heading "Tell the Israelis that it is not just cricket", the authors' strongly pro-Palestinian line verged on incitement; asserting that "To give even a slight hint of a willingness to consider recognition of Israel at this point in time would be a travesty of justice."

Not surprisingly, a major incident occurred shortly afterwards on March 30 - around 500 PAS members invaded a ground where they mistakenly thought the Israeli team would be playing. The scheduled match between Canada and the Netherlands had to be cancelled after the demonstrators, sporting placards reading "Damn the Zionists" and "Crush Israel", lit bonfires and smashed promotional billboards outside the PKNS ground in Kuala Lumpur. PAS members met the match referee and demanded to know where the Israelis were playing.

Incredibly, no arrests were made after the three-hour incident. The PAS's protest leader Mahfuz Omar said his group would track down the Israeli team and stage more protests. Meanwhile, the match between Israel and Gibraltar had been switched to another venue - guarded by 100 riot police and five police buses blocking the entrance - after organisers received information that a protest would be staged.

Prime Minister Mahathir continued to defend his decision to allow the Israeli team to play by appealing to national pride, stating that "the international media, which is controlled by the West and the Jews, is always projecting a bad image of Malaysia, even to the extent of portraying an ugly image of Muslims... This is our opportunity to show them (the Israelis) that Muslims in Malaysia can be an example to other Islamic countries."

The exhortation for calm did not prevent another disturbance from occurring - on April 4, about 800 protesters, comprised of PAS members and students from the University of Malaya, assembled after Friday prayers at the university's main entrance in Kuala Lumpur. Israel was scheduled to play Argentina inside the campus. The Association of Students of Higher Institutions of Learning issued a statement proclaiming: "Israel is a race cursed by Allah and inviting them here means bringing God's catastrophe into Malaysia."

When the protesters refused to leave and began hurling stones at security personnel, police were forced to release tear gas and use batons and a water cannon to break up the group. About 100 protesters took refuge in a nearby Mosque, which police then surrounded for six hours before entering to make arrests. A PAS youth leader, Sheikh Abu Bakar, later boasted that the demonstration had forced Israel's match to be cancelled, though in fact, the game had been moved to a secondary school in Kuala Lumpur.

With one protester and 22 police injured, it was the most violent demonstration seen in Kuala Lumpur for years and the first open manifestation of campus activism in almost two decades. Dr Mahathir responded by describing the demonstration as "sheer stupidity" which would not help the Palestinian struggle. The Education Minister, Najib Razak, followed by warning that students involved in the protest could be expelled, though the President of the Undergraduate Islamic Association, Ridhwan Zakaria, defended the students position, insisting those who participated had no links with the PAS and acted "of their own free will."

The involvement of students in the demonstrations did not only indicate that the apparent calm of Malaysian universities is illusory. More significant is that the students are attracted to the radical and fundamentalist form of Islam promoted by PAS, and that this emerging generation opposes the Government's more moderate and pragmatic approach to Islamic issues.

Making up 53 per cent of the population, Malaysia's Muslims are necessarily an essential component of national stability. Apart from the opposition PAS (which governs the Kelantan province), Muslims are an influential force in Dr Mahathir's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which is embroiled in debate over whether it should adopt a more Islamic orientation. Some senior figures in the party are said to believe the decision to admit the Israeli cricket team was ill-advised at a time when Islamic states have been calling for tough action against Israel, and say it left Mahathir's pragmatic government open to criticism at home and from abroad.

The Israeli team arrived back home on April 6 having completed its required matches. The team manager and Chairman of the Israel Cricket Association, Stanley Perlman, told The Review that the sojourn in Malaysia was a success. "The team didn't go so well but the reason we went was that Israel should be represented in Malaysia. We didn't go there to perform on the cricket field; we went there to perform on the political field," he said.

Perlman downplayed the effect of the demonstrations on the touring party and was satisfied with the team's treatment by the organising authorities. He also insisted that the matches were played under "perfectly normal conditions" and that "the police did their job. We weren't aware of what the police were doing." To reporters' questions about the Israel-Palestinian issue, Perlman played a straight bat, replying that "We are very happy to be here in Malaysia and we're here to play cricket."

Despite the vociferous protests in Kuala Lumpur, Dr Mahathir's government seems set to continue its policy of tacitly pursuing greater engagement with Israel. Only two weeks before the arrival of the Israeli cricket team, and without the attendant publicity, the Malaysian Government sponsored the visit of a group of 17 year-old Israeli students accompanied by senior officials from the Israeli Education Ministry. Malaysian authorities reportedly insisted that the Israeli teenagers be Jewish, because they wanted to show their guests that Islam in Malaysia was moderate and tolerant, rather than extremist. The group received a warm welcome, got along well with Malaysian teenagers and also met the Education Minister Najib Razak, a prominent member of UMNO, which dominates the National Front coalition Government. Dr Mahathir is also believed to favour improved economic relations with Israel, in order to attract investment and acquire technology. Malaysian companies are no longer banned from dealing with Israel, though official policy discourages Malaysians buying from Israel if the goods or technologies are available elsewhere. Late last year, Israel's Bank Hapoalim signed an agreement with Kuala Lumpur's Public Bank which allows for direct financial transactions between the two countries for the first time.

Notwithstanding the improvements in relations, the Malaysian Government still insists publicly that diplomatic relations with Israel will not eventuate unless the outcome of the Middle East peace negotiations is satisfactory to the Palestinians. The current crisis in the peace process makes it difficult for Dr Mahathir to initiate full relations, not wanting to provoke a potentially violent reaction from Muslim fundamentalists.

Negotiating the competing tensions between pragmatism, moderation and economic development on one hand, and the absolutist demands of the growing Islamic fundamentalist constituency on the other, represents a difficult balancing act for the Malaysian Government. A step-by-step approach would seem to be Dr Mahathir's best option for maintaining stability.