November 26, 2011
www.nst.com.my
Distorting a Past endangers a Present
by Farish M.Noor
LAST week, a extraordinary news object caught my attention. It was reported which a little activists wanted to organise a procession to a encampment of Memali in Kedah, as if to revisit a site where a fiery orator, Ibrahim Libya, was killed in Nov 1985.
Though we am not certain of either this procession was a success, we was, nonetheless, amazed which some-more than two decades later, there have been still a little who courtesy a male as a hero of sorts. Perhaps a reason for this lies partly in their miss of believe of who a male was, as good as what he was fighting for then.
Memali was a stage of what is probably a worst example of state contra opposition violence in new Malaysian history. Charok Puteh-Memali was afterwards a small, poor village. A majority of a inhabitants were Malay farmers as good as rubber smallholders.
Like most alternative small rural communities whose income depended on a world rubber price, a people of Charok Puteh as good as Memali were tough strike by a dump in commodity prices as good as tall levels of inflation during a 1970s. It was here which ustaz Ibrahim Mahmood staid as good as built his madrasah.
Ibrahim was a well-known ulama in Kedah who had complicated during assorted madrasah as good as seminaries such as a Dar'ul 'Ulum Deoband in India as good as al-Azhar University in Cairo.
He had additionally complicated during a University of Tripoli (hence his nickname, Ibrahim Libya). Upon his return to Malaysia, Ibrahim worked as an official in a dakwah dialect of Pusat Islam in Kuala Lumpur. He was expected to assistance rationalize most of a government's policies on Islam as! good as Muslim concerns.
One of his tasks was to convince a young Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia leader, Anwar Ibrahim, who was detained during a Kamunting apprehension camp, to await a government. (This was after documented in C.N. al-Afghani's 1998 book, Rakyat Makin Mantang, Baling: Corak Memali.)
Ibrahim Libya grew some-more dynamic to generate his bargain of Islam, which was not entirely compatible with Pusat Islam's interpretation.
He quit a collateral as good as returned to his encampment of Charok Puteh. Here, Ibrahim opened his own school, Madrasah Islahiah Diniyyah. He became an active Pas member, in particular Dewan Pemuda PAS Kedah. In time, he gained a vast following as good as his madrasah became a centre for domestic activities as good as Islamic teaching.
The ustaz was good known for his fiery rhetoric as good as strict code of discipline: on several occasions, he punished (by caning) not usually his younger students, though additionally a older ones (who happened to be married men).
He was invited to speak on Islamic counts on national television, as good as additionally engaged in discussions with state ulama as good as eremite functionaries. However, his own counterclaim of Islamist politics as good as PAS was shortly articulated by oppositional dialectics which drew a dividing line in between "authentic" Muslims as good as a non-authentic Islam of a munafikin (hypocrites).
Ibrahim lamented a fact which Islamists in Malaysia were not peaceful to rivet in an no holds barred jihad opposite a government.
In 1984, a supervision decided to action opposite Ibrahim. An detain warrant was issued as good as he was to be detained along with alternative PAS leaders, together with ustaz Abu Bakar Chik as good as ustaz Bunyamin Yaacob for allegedly advocating a make use of of violence. He refused to accept a charges as good as cursed a Internal Security Act as un-Islamic as good as oppressive.
Unlike a alternative PAS leaders who were caught ! as good as detained, Ibrahim escaped with a assistance of his students. The stand-off continued for some-more than a year, until his death in 1985.
Notwithstanding a resources of his death, it ought to be noted which Ibrahim was frequency a moderate by anyone's standards then, even those of PAS.
His speeches called on his supporters to oppose a state, citing examples from Iran as good as Pakistan. He additionally reminded his followers which should they die in a means of his struggle, they would all die as martyrs, though. in his own case, he primarily refused to accept a terms of his arrest, as good as promptly ran into hiding.
I lift this emanate now usually because of a new debates about Malaysian story as good as a fact which so most scholars have bemoaned a miss of believe of a past. It is difficult sufficient to stomach claims which we were never colonised, or which national heroes could be seen as criminals, as good as vice-versa.
In a box of Ibrahim Libya, a testimonies as good as speeches of a male himself were good documented, as good as have been available. His own words discuss it us what a male was like, as good as it was frequency surprising that, during his own time, he was shunned by most of his peers as good as friends for receiving things as well far.
My usually advice to a younger generation of activists currently would be this: whilst a thorough as good as vicious reading of a past is regularly welcomed, as good as perpetually needed, let us additionally be discreet not to distort a past for a needs of a present.
Ibrahim Libya was a male who once asked: "Di Malaysia kenapa tidak boleh wujud angkatan yang berani mati?" (Why is it which in Malaysia, there is none who is peaceful to die?). In a end, it was Ibrahim himself who paid a price for his overheated rhetoric, though not without receiving a little of his unfortunate followers to a grave with him, too.
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