The Curious Silence of the Islamists On the National Budget

 The Curious Silence of the Islamists On The National Budget

M. Bakri Musa

 

The record 2024-2025 National Budget presented last week (October 18, 2024) elicited many responses from various groups, except for one. The Islamists were conspicuous by their collective silence. 

 

Perhaps they were content with the generous funding they received, from the already massive RM1.9 billion for the outgoing year to the proposed RM2.2 billion for the next. That figure grossly understates the true level of expenditure as it excludes the religious bureaucracies in the various ministries. Consider that each embassy has its own resident Imam. Then there are the Islamic schools under the Ministry of Education.

 

            With Islamic scholars fixated on their Islamization-of-everything fad, their silence on the national budget is not only conspicuous but also unfathomable. One expects them to have substantive views on this most critical aspect of governance. 

 

The Qur’an mentions zakat, tax on wealth with a flat rate of 2.5 percent. Modern income tax is based on income and is progressive, with increasing marginal rates. Zakat is levied only on liquid and movable assets. Homes are thus exempt. That is not equitable; consider the difference between a sultan’s magnificent palace and a teacher’s modest bungalow. Zakat’s flat rate also means that a billionaire sheik pays the same rate as a school teacher. Again, little equity there, and equity is the core of Islam. From that angle, income tax is more “Islamic.”

 

Islam cannot claim originality with zakat. The ancient Greeks had their eisphora, asset tax levied on the super-rich. Two millennia later, French economist Thomas Piketty suggested a progressive global wealth surtax of up to 2.5 percent (zakat rate) to combat global inequity and climate change. In 2020 “Millionaires For Humanity” advocated a similar wealth tax to combat poverty, Covid-19, climate change, and meeting the UN Sustainable Goals. 

 

Imposing a wealth tax on all assets both local and abroad would generate far more revenue than tinkering with the current tax code. It would also be far easier to assess and administer. Its low rate (as with zakat 2.5 percent) discourages cheating.

 

The Quran also defines how zakat funds should be spent. With creative interpretations, all activities of a modern government including military spending could be placed under any one of the eight Qur’anic categories. 

 

The first two, spending on the poor and needy, are self-evident. Less appreciated is the building of infrastructures like roads and marketplaces. With roads, poor rural dwellers could bring their produce to sell in town as well as bring their sick to hospital. 

 

The first thing the Prophet, s.a.w., did when establishing his first Muslim community in Medinah was to build a marketplace so people could trade with one another. A trader before receiving his prophethood, Mohammad, s.a.w., knew the value of trading in enhancing social bonds. A businessman has to treat others not as “them” rather as potential clients, customers, and business partners. That brings a whole new and productive perspective on your relationships. 

 

Another zakat provision is freeing those in bondage. That may seem quaint or irrelevant in today’s world sans slavery and indentured servitude. However, stretching the concept, the greatest bondage faced by the ummah today is ignorance and poverty, no less crippling than physical bondage. Alleviate poverty and ignorance, and you liberate your people. 

 

Zakat mandates not more than 1/8 (12.5 percent) of the collections be spent on administration. Translating that to modern governance, that should be the limit for civil service emoluments. In the 2024-25 Budget, emoluments constituted 24.3 percent of the total, double zakat’s limit. The good news is that it is a substantial decrease from last year’s 31.5 percent. 

 

Failure to control emoluments would result in what my Minangkabau wisdom calls “Habih dek orang pangkar!” Translated, the host’s servants gobbling up all the food leaving little for the guests.

 

Zakat’s “spending in the cause of Allah” should cover anything that would benefit the ummah, from building schools to cleaning streets as well as unclogging drains and dredging rivers to avoid floodings. 

 

Ancient Muslims recognized that wealth, like water, is best kept circulating. Zakat achieves this. The concept of “velocity of money,” a measure of an economy’s vigor, also reflects this wisdom. 

 

Islam considers interests, and by extension debts, haram. Debt however, is a powerful leveraging mechanism. It enabled me to provide a house early in my career for my young family; for others, to secure their higher education. Both are good, and thus halal. As for the size of the national debt, Japan has the highest debt-to-GDP ratio and yet her people are prosperous. Problems arise when debts are foreign-denominated and the proceeds are used to build grandiose projects rather than productive infrastructures or investing in citizens.

 

Islamists should push for taxing all assets and incomes. Exempting foreign ones, the current practice, only encourages Malaysians to park (meaning, hide) their wealth abroad. Not only does that not benefit the nation, it also encourages corruption. As the Pandora Papers revealed, even the Minister of Finance has significant assets abroad. Such hypocrisy! 

 

Zakat is treated as tax credit in Malaysia instead of only being tax deductible as in America. However, zakat benefits only Muslims while non-Muslims pay the bulk of the income tax that benefits all Malaysians. Is that just? Further, as per the New Economic Policy, most government programs benefit Malays. 

 

This issue of equity and justice should concern all Malaysians, more so Muslims. Equity and justice are Islam’s core.

 

The Opium In The 2024-25 Malaysian Budget

 The Opium In The 2024-25 Malaysian Budget

M. Bakri Musa

 

I marvel at how Britain, a small island nation, could control China for a very long time in the mid 19^thCentury. 

 

            The British motive then (and elsewhere) was, as with all colonial powers, primarily economic, at least initially. Unable to pay with silver for the increasing English appetite for Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain, the British concocted a barter system using Indian opium. The rest is, well, history. Within a generation or two Chinese society disintegrated, their zombie citizens high on opium. 

 

            I dispense with the side issue of how Britain with only a few thousand civil servants could control hundreds of millions of cantankerous natives in that sub-continent, or how the British managed to keep opium away from the Indians.

 

            These thoughts come to mind as I reviewed the latest Malaysian budget with its ever-increasing allocation for Islamic-related activities. The figure of RM 2.2 billion in the budget does not include major expenses under other categories, as for Islamic schools in the Ministry of Education, or the earlier decision to place Islamic officers in every government department.

 

            Add to that the funding at state level as well as zakat collections. Selangor alone collected over RM1.15 billion in zakat last year, while the total for 2022 for all thirteen states was over RM 2.2 billion. Zakat payments are tax credits, not simply tax deductible.  

 

            The German philosopher Karl Marx (he is known today less as that) famously called religion the “opium of the people.” It is a security blanket used by those in power to “not only oppress the workers, but also make them feel better about being oppressed.” Religion is also cheaper than opium.

 

            Non-Malays again complained about this latest largesse for Malays. It would be more productive (and also enhance peace in the country) if non-Malays were to look at the brighter side. Malays should also be grateful that non-Malays are not like the Brits in China of yore. 

 

            Consider that with more Malays pursuing revealed knowledge and prophetic traditions, the competition for entry into law and medical schools is that much less, quotas notwithstanding. With Malays spending their time in solat tahujud, the market for car and home repair services is wide open. Or selling nasi lemak after Friday prayers. Have “halal” signs, a few Malay girls in purdah peddling it, and an Ali Baba Malay as the nominal owner of your enterprise, for a fee of course. 

 

The difference between contemporary Malay society and that of the Chinese during their “Century of Humiliation” is that with the latter, the opium was peddled by white foreign devils with the most-evil of intentions. The modern metaphorical Malay variety is pushed by our own leaders, and with the best of intentions, as perceived by both leaders and followers. We praise our leaders sky high for doing that; they in turn believe fervently that they are doing God’s work.

 

While the Chinese peasants of yore were content with their opium, their leaders and intellectuals were very much aware of this social blight but were helpless in the face of much superior Western power. On the other hand, Malay leaders and intellectuals, still trapped in their collective euphoria, are oblivious of the dangers of the social opium they are peddling.

 

Make no mistake. This opium is no less destructive. It is not coincidental that the most backward states in Malaysia are where the Islamists are in full control. Likewise, the various indices of social dysfunction like divorces, HIV infections, and abandoned babies are also highest there. Rest assured that little of that budgetary largesse would be spent solving those problems. Each entry in those horrifying statistics reflects the tragedy of not only the present generation but also the next, and possibly subsequent ones. Malay leaders, intoxicated with their glittering edifices, and Islamic leaders using private jets undertaking their umrah, remain oblivious.

 

Those stark realities notwithstanding, Malay leaders elsewhere and in the other parties are vying hard to “out-Islam” those in the Islamic Party. The ever-increasing spending for presumed Islamic causes reflect this foolish pursuit.

 

Equally distracting and non-productive are other symbolic gestures. The latest, the elaborate ceremony honoring nonagenarian Dr. Syed Naquib Al-Attas with a Royal Professorship. Syed was the champion of the “Islamization of Knowledge” (IOK) fad, now dismissed except by local scholars. Even they have subtly shifted to “Integration of Knowledge.” Same initials, same futile effort. Knowledge is knowledge, and it all originates from Allah, with no Islamic or satanic variant.  

 

Muslim leaders are obsessed in emulating Prophet Muhammad, s.a.w., as the Qur’an commanded every Muslim to do. However, these later prophet wannabes forget this unique attribute of Muhammad, s.a.w. He was singularly blessed by Allah to be both spiritual as well as secular leader. Allah has not seen fit to ordain another. 

 

Every Muslim leader from the Rightly Guided Caliphs who tried to be both ended up inflicting much damage to the faith as well as the ummah. Consider that three of the first four caliphs had untimely deaths. 

 

Malay leaders are obsessed that they and their followers end up in Heaven. Touching! However, that is the exclusive prerogative of Allah, and only His. Malay leaders should instead strive that their followers not endure Hell right here on earth. Heed the wisdom of Ibn ‘Ata Allah Al Iskandari: “If you want to know your standing with Him, look at the state He has put you in now.”

 

The late Tengku Abdul Rahman was the greatest Muslim leader in that respect. He brought the greatest gift – freedom (Merdeka) – to his people and then “built schools instead of barracks.” 

 

Bring peace, alleviate poverty, educate your citizens, and keep them healthy. Those efforts would spare them from a hellish existence here on earth. Those are the primary burdens and responsibilities of a leader, Muslim ones included. As such the national budget should reflect that. Do not narcotize your people.