The Islamic factor is increasingly rising to the forefront again in Malaysia as the two Muslim-based parties, UMNO and PAS, probe each other for meeting points, even as they compete for support of the majority Malay-Muslim community. Both parties recently had their party assemblies, which provided the opportunity to delve not only into the official party narratives, but also the undercurrent through robust responses from party rank and file. Against this backdrop, Islamism, characterised by hudud or Islamic criminal law, is emerging as a new issue narrowing the parties’ differences, catalysed, not surprisingly, by Brunei’s move towards the Islamic penal code.

… Yang Razali Kassim is a Senior Fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University and the school’s Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS).

Afif Pasuni is an Associate Research Fellow and Mohamed Nawab Mohamed Osman is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Malaysia Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.