(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
exist irrespective of what philosophies of life and death dominate human mind. The
choice before the spiritual group is whether to let greedy materialists own all the
wealth of the world and the power that goes with it, or to own that wealth themselves.
If the materialistic group own that wealth, the spiritual group cannot but face
destruction. On the other hand, if the spiritual group owns the wealth, there is some
hope that they can still avoid moral decadence (Ibid., p. 113).
What The challenge finds objectionable, according to Khoo Boo Teik (1995, p. 59) was the
Malay’s suspicion of ‘secular ‘ learning or ‘Western’ education that led to the deprecation of
many fields of ‘worldly knowledge’ (Ibid., p. 114) for fear that ‘faith in Islam will...be
weakened by the mastery of such knowledge’ (Ibid., p. 36). Mahathir attributes such an
attitude to the Malays’ ignorance as to ‘the contribution of Islam to world education since the
fourteenth century’ (Mahathir, 1986:p.24). Dr.Mahathir calls on the Malays to appreciate
that Western or secular education, so-called, was ‘neither Western nor secular’ (Ibid., p. 25).
Dr. Mahathir reasons that:
The education and knowledge that the West and that the Western people have spread
throughout the world are in reality Islamic. When the Muslims mastered these, Islam
spread rapidly. It would not be too much to say that the knowledge helped the spread
of Islam. Knowledge which was so effective in helping the spread of Islam cannot be
said to be in conflict with Islam (Ibid.)
The challenge offers a concrete lesson to help the Malays ‘in overcoming their suspicion of
fields of knowledge that the West calls ‘secular’ or ‘Western education’ (Mahathir, 1986: p.
37). Dr. Mahathir argues that Muslims who hinder the mastery of knowledge related to the
production and use of such equipment (of war), dubbing the knowledge ‘secular,’ may be
committing treachery against Islam rather than preserving its integrity (Ibid., 31). Against the
background of Western and European influence upon the rest of the world and the Malays,
Mahathir believes that where knowledge is concerned, there can be no division into
‘religious; and ‘secular’ education. All education that is useful to mankind becomes part of
the knowledge that Islam urges its believers to pursue (Ibid., 27-8).
The Challenge offerres Dr.Mahathir’s reading of Islam “which came not from an Islamic
theologian but a Malay nationalist”. The result was that the Malay dilemma was recast as a
Muslim dilemma” (Khoo Boo Teik, 1995: 41). And this recast was set against ‘The Decline
of the West,’ as Khoo had subtitled in his chapter 2 ‘Dilemmas of Malay Nationalism.’ In
configuring on the Malay self, The challenge does not contain forceful and combative,
Malay-Dilemma-like appeals to Malay nationalism.
In The Challenge, Dr. Mahathir speaks of identity and destiny. “The fault may lie with
others, but the Malays will have to shape their own destiny.” (Mahathir, 1986:p.3).
Dr.Mahathir appeals that “God will not change the fate of a nation unless that nation itself
strives for improvement” (Ibid.). Khoo notes that for Mahathir, Malay ‘destiny’ and
‘improvement’ were inextricably bound up with Malay ‘values’ (1995: p.42). It was in
defence of the values which “he thought the Malays needed that led Dr.Mahathir to detect a
new threat facing the Malays” – what Khoo describes as from ‘a West in decline’ (Ibid.,
p.43). Even though Mahathir describes the West of ‘many undesirable Western values’
(Mahathir 1986: p. 103). Dr.Mahathir describes the West as suffering from a perversion of
values where ‘good’ is accepted as ‘bad’ and ‘bad accepted as ‘good.’ (Ibid., p.91).
Dr.Mahathir would later in 2001 in Malays forget easily lament that the Malays “have
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