Kua Kia Soong
Muslim progressive politicians have recently won big in America. Zohran Mamdani did it in New York. And now Dr Abdul El-Sayed has done it in Michigan.
Their success should force Malaysia’s Muslim political establishment to confront an uncomfortable question. Why are Muslim politicians in the United States, supposedly the world’s richest country, often more willing to champion democratic socialism than Muslim politicians in Muslim-majority Malaysia?
For decades, Malaysian politics has conditioned us to believe that Muslim political leadership must revolve around race, religious symbolism and endless debates over identity.
Election after election, voters are offered competing brands of Malay nationalism dressed up in different religious vocabularies. Social justice becomes secondary. Economic democracy becomes invisible. Recent voting trends seem to confirm this pattern.
Thousands of kilometres away, Muslim candidates in America have shown it is possible to build broad democratic coalitions. They have done it around healthcare, housing, workers’ rights and public transport. They have also done it around taxing extreme wealth, affordable education and standing up to corporate domination.
The genocide in Gaza by Israel, with the complicity of the US, has contributed to this political lesson for American voters.
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Their politics does not ask: who is the better Muslim? It asks: who will build a more equal society? That is precisely the question Malaysian Muslim parties have avoided.
Democratic socialism is not the enemy of Islamic ethics
The irony is striking. The Qur’an repeatedly condemns the concentration of wealth. It commands believers to defend the poor, the orphan, the traveller and the oppressed.
Yet Malaysian Muslim parties have become remarkably comfortable defending an economic order that produces billionaires, while millions struggle with stagnant wages, rising housing costs and insecure employment.
The language of zakat (almsgiving) is celebrated. The politics of redistribution is feared.
The obligation of charity is emphasised. The reform of unjust economic structures is quietly forgotten.
Democratic socialism is not the enemy of Islamic ethics. If anything, it asks governments to build in many of the values Islam has long preached: reducing inequality, protecting the vulnerable and preventing wealth from accumulating indefinitely in the hands of a privileged elite.
Identity has replaced justice
Malaysia suffers from an addiction to identity politics. Recent elections show this trend clearly.
Instead of debating why young people cannot afford homes, politicians debate race.
Instead of asking why healthcare is getting more expensive, politicians debate religious sensitivities.
Instead of confronting monopolies and corporate power, politicians manufacture cultural controversies.
Identity politics has become the cheapest substitute for economic reform. Many Muslim parties appear to believe that defending Malay identity is proof enough of serving Islam. It is not.
A society where the poor remain poor, workers stay exploited, and inequality widens cannot claim moral superiority simply because its politicians speak the language of religion.
A forgotten tradition
Islam once produced some of the world’s strongest traditions of social welfare. Early Muslim societies recognised obligations towards the poor. They restricted exploitative finance, accepted public responsibility for basic welfare and enforced a moral duty to prevent excessive concentrations of wealth.
These principles sit far closer to democratic socialism than to the neoliberal capitalism embraced by many governments today.
Yet Malaysian Muslim politicians rarely challenge the privatisation unleashed by Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the 1980s. They rarely challenge monopolies or question the growing influence of billionaires over public policy. Instead, they speak endlessly about cultural identity while leaving economic power untouched.
What could a Muslim socialist platform look like?
Imagine Muslim politicians campaigning on a platform that includes:
- Universal healthcare, free at the point of use
- Massive investment in affordable public housing
- Progressive taxation of extreme wealth
- Stronger trade unions and workers’ rights
- Free quality education from preschool to university
- Wider public childcare
- Public transport before highways
- Green industrial policy that creates decent jobs
- Transparent government, free from patronage
- Equal dignity for everyone, regardless of ethnicity or religion
Would any of this contradict Islam? Or would it simply challenge entrenched political and economic interests?
For too long, Malaysian Muslim politics has equated justice with ethnic patronage and racial populism. This is a profound mistake.
Justice cannot be achieved merely by redistributing opportunities among elites of the same ethnicity, while structural inequality stays intact. The cashier, the factory worker, the delivery rider and the struggling graduate gain little comfort from knowing that another politically connected millionaire shares their religion.
Real justice means reducing inequality itself, not simply changing its beneficiaries.
Neither Mamdani nor El-Sayed built their reputations mainly by appealing to religious identity. They campaigned on economic justice, spoke about affordability and challenged corporate power. They reached across ethnic and religious boundaries.
Most importantly, they trusted voters to unite around shared material interests rather than permanent communal fears.
Malaysia badly needs this kind of political imagination. Instead of asking whether candidates are sufficiently Islamic, perhaps we should ask whether they are sufficiently committed to ending poverty, inequality and exploitation.
Malaysia does not need more politicians competing over who can appear more religious. It needs politicians courageous enough to confront concentrated wealth. It needs leaders prepared to tax billionaires instead of protecting them. It needs governments that place public welfare above private profit.
Above all, it needs Muslim politicians willing to rediscover Islam’s radical commitment to justice, rather than merely its symbolism.
Dr Kua Kia Soong is a former MP and adviser of human rights group Suaram.
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
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