Balancing Islamists And Seculars Is Malaysia's Formula As Lesson To Arab Countries

Video of protesters being shot, said to have been recorded Friday in the Suez canal city of Ismailiya.

In mosque near Ramses. Counted 25 or 26 dead but more keep coming in. Injured screaming.

Clashes involve between the Islamists and the seculars in Egypt. This will also happen in Malaysia if the goverment failed to the balancing of Islamists and seculars.

Arab Countries have claimed that they are better Muslim, land of prophets, with many gred A religious scholar and proud cultures.

The results of many events in the middle east countries proved otherwise. First the wave of Arab Springs then civil war in Syria now violence clashes in Egypt.

Two factors contribute to such horrible events:

• Low economy- eg Egypt, food inflation is about 20% at the moment... tourism's already down by about 50% since the revolution two years ago... and foreign investment's down 75%."
• Conflict of political interests between the islamists and seculars not balance.

The Islamists want to integrate Islam and the state whereas the seculars argue that Islam and the state should be separated.

Coupled with dislike from non-muslims and prejudice from the west, the Islamists although won general elections at the end of the day they were overthrown by the army cases like Algeria and Egypt.

During Mr Morsi’s year-long tenure as president they sucked up to and pampered the security establishment; co-opting it was much more central to their plans than finding ways to work with a non-Islamist political opposition they deemed irrelevant. 

But it did not work, say many now-regretful the Muslim Brotherhoood. They found themselves subtly undermined and thwarted by Egypt’s courts and interior ministry.

The economy, badly buffeted by two-and-a-half years of unrest, is less likely than ever to find a respite; tourists are ever less likely to visit. The majority which wanted Mr Morsi gone, if not necessarily the army returned, is reinforced in its passionate nationalism and loathing for the arrogant piety of the Brothers.

The Islamists, for their part, can now add the fire of martyrdom to their grievance of stolen electoral legitimacy. A slide into prolonged strife, possibly even civil war, may be hard to avoid.

Balancing Islamists and seculars is Malaysia's formula for political stability that Arabs countries can learn.

The Islamists  rule in Egypt was short lived almost two years. Many Islamic scholars in Arab countries do rethinking of how Malaysia through UMNO can rules  long and last almost nearly 60 years.

What special about UMNO and BN? Is UMNO a "little mukjizat" that Allah bestows upon Malaysia to look after the muslims the majority of the population.

The fact remains that balancing  Islamists and seculars is the recipe of Malaysia success in managing the country.