The Role of Islam in the Political Development of Malaysia

Abstract

The concept of political development has been almost as widely accepted among social scientists who study the non-Western world as economic development has been accepted among contemporary economists. In both instances, there is the assumption that we can examine a specific country and, by empirical analysis of certain critical indicators, determine with some degree of precision how "modern" that society is. Presumably, such analysis can also aid in identifying factors that either inhibit or accelerate "progress" as defined by the characteristics that are said, by typological definition, to be "modern." While there is no unanimity on the typological characteristics of a "modern political system," we can find fairly widespread agreement about certain characteristics of a modern social and political order. The typology of a modern political system is usually described as one that has a high degree of occupational and skill specialization, functionally specific nonascriptive structures, a prevalence of voluntary associations, a secular national political authority seeking to exercise rational controls over man and his environment to achieve secular-instrumental values, and a basis in universalistic achievement norms. Despite slight differences in various typologies of a modern society, there is near universal agreement that its political structures must be secular and pursue secular utilitarian values. While these typologies may be colored by the experience of the advanced industrial states of the West where the principles of the separation of church and state have been for the most part widely accepted, it is also implicit in the notion that modernization means maximizing rational and scientific knowledge to meet man's present physical and material needs on this earth.1 If this is to be the yardstick of modernization, we may ask a related question: What is the role of religion in the process of modernization?