15200 results in ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Section III - Social and Environmental Issues
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7 - Tourism in Johor and Its Potential
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
As the southernmost state in Peninsular Malaysia, bordering on Singapore, Johor serves as an entry point for a substantial number of tourists. In 2016, the state ranked third of those that contribute to tourism industry incomes, generating RM11,406 million in 2016. This figure represents an annual average growth rate (or added value) of 6.9 per cent (Department of Statistics 2018a). Johor's ranking in terms of tourism income banks heavily on Singaporean visitors. Malaysia's overall inbound tourism receipts contributed to 6.7 per cent of the national GDP in 2016 (Nikkei Asian Review, 31 October 2017), with 26.8 million tourists arriving in the country in that same year. Of these arrivals, Singaporeans made up the bulk of the visitors (13.3 million or 49.6 per cent), with Indonesians in a distant second place with 3.1 million (11.5 per cent) visitors. Many of these Singaporeans enter Malaysia through Johor.
Domestic tourism also generates economic revenue for Malaysia, with 189.3 million local arrivals registered in 2016 with a total expenditure of RM74.8 billion. It was reported that Tourism Malaysia listed Johor as the most popular destination for domestic tourists with 7.4 million recorded local visitors in 2016 compared to the next favourite local destination (Perak) at 7.2 million in the same year (Mohd Farhaan Shah 2018). However, a domestic tourism survey conducted in 2017 (Department of Statistics Malaysia 2018) did not place Johor in the top five states preferred by domestic visitors. Instead, Selangor ranked the highest at 25.5 million domestic visitors with Perak coming in second with 20.1 million voters. The remaining favoured domestic destinations in the top five according to this survey were Kuala Lumpur, Sabah and Sarawak.
Johor enjoys one of the fastest economic growth rates in Malaysia, often attributed to the establishment of the southern economic corridor, Iskandar Malaysia, in 2006. However, while Johor enjoys high international tourist arrivals through its land bridges to Singapore, it does not seem to retain these tourists within the state. In order to examine tourism in Johor, this chapter will first set out the relevant context regarding the structure of tourism management and policy-making in Malaysia. From there, it will provide an overview of the industry within the state, and then look at its approaches to both domestic and international tourism, as well as the policies that support or prohibit tourism development across Johor. Future developments, opportunities and challenges will also be discussed.
3 - Johor’s Oil Palm Economy: Past, Present and Future
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Introduced over a century ago, oil palms are currently Johor's most significant agricultural offering. Over one-third of Johor's entire landmass is planted with oil palms. Thirty per cent of these lands are farmed by independent smallholders, nearly twice the national average (MPOB n.d.-a; MAMPU n.d.). Further downstream, Johor's millers produced one-sixth of Malaysia's crude palm oil in 2018, worth nearly RM7 billion in revenue (MPOB n.d.-b). The territory hosts numerous downstream players pumping out refined palm oil, margarine, specialty fats, oleochemicals, and biodiesel. Johor's two major ports—Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Pelepas—anchor these production clusters, while also exporting RM15.5 billion of vegetable (mostly palm) oil products in 2017—an impressive 28 per cent of Malaysia's world-leading output (DOSM n.d.). Much of this global prominence stems from Johor's long history as an agricultural powerhouse, its forays into resource-based industrialization, and its relative success in becoming a trade hub for edible oils and chemical derivatives.
This essay will survey the oil palm's increasingly heavy presence within Johor's landscape, commerce, and political economy, grounding discussions in broader global and historical contexts where necessary. The paper's next section outlines the oil palm's importance to world trade, the crop's social and environmental complications in Southeast Asia, and the significance of independent smallholder farming arrangements. We then present a brief history of Johor's multilayered oil palm farm sector since its inception. A third section tracks the oil palm's journey through the value chain, mapping out the millers, crushers, refiners, merchants and equipment manufacturers that have consolidated Johor's status as an attractive locale for commodity processing. Having outlined the main commercial players involved, we then turn towards the more political dimensions of Johor's oil palm sector: the electoral significance of Johor's Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) settler communities, other government-linked entities involved in oil palms, and land control issues, the latter especially dependent on close ties with Johor's state government. Land use concerns also connect with our final section, which looks at how urbanization, landowners and sustainability requirements are influencing the oil palm's future in Johor.
15 - Johor Bahru’s Urban Transformation: Authority and Agency Revisited
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Johor, West Malaysia's southernmost state, has undergone a tremendous urban transformation over the last decade. Its strategic location, adjacent to Singapore, has contributed to escalating development and rising land values. The state offers many opportunities for investors; its rapid urban transformation is closely associated with the establishment of Iskandar Malaysia, a special economic zone (SEZ) that was officially launched in 2006. Initially 2,217 square kilometres in area, Iskandar Malaysia was singled out as the highest-impact development project in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006–10). Modelled ostensibly after the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone, Iskandar Malaysia seeks to maximize spillover effects for business and industry from land-scarce Singapore as well as other destinations. In its wake, the SEZ brought an unprecedented building boom and speculation in the international property sector.
Malaysia has a long-standing history of land reform and redistribution. From independence, land reform was deemed critical for poverty reduction, as seen through large-scale initiatives such as the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA), which sought to create livelihoods for poor rural families with little or no assets (Henley 2015).
However, while land management is, according to the Constitution, a state government responsibility, national-level needs and initiatives have led to federal government encroachment in these and many other areas (Hutchinson 2014). As land remains a premium asset for the both levels of government, the process of sourcing for and developing land can become contested.
Johor's land redistribution policy and property development practices have undergone profound changes over the last ten years. The state government has opened up Johor Bahru's high-end residential market to both local non-bumiputra enterprises and foreign developers. There are about forty ongoing or recently completed property projects in Johor. These projects attributed to 42 per cent of the stock of 702,101 new houses in the state. From 2007 to 2016, Johor recorded a total sale of investment properties of more than US$8.1 billion. In 2013, over 76.4 per cent of investment properties (mostly residential) were purchased by foreign investors (Savills World Research Malaysia 2015).
This chapter aims to understand and reflect on Johor Bahru's fast-changing urban environment. It intends to broaden the study of land reform by considering how government-linked companies, bureaucratic elite and foreign developers have acted together to reshape land development practices in contemporary Johor.
10 - Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia in Johor: New Party, Big Responsibility
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
On 9 September 2016 the Malaysian Registrar of Societies (RoS) gave approval for the establishment of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), following the splintering of the main party in the country's ruling coalition, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO). PPBM was then officially launched on 14 January 2017, boasting some of the most famous names in Malaysian politics today as its top leaders. Malaysia's longest-serving Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was named as Chairman, and former Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin as President. Former Chief Minister of the northern Malaysian state of Kedah, Mukhriz Mahathir, who is Mahathir's son, was named Deputy President.
Right from the start, PPBM projected itself as a party that champions the Malay agenda. This is a position traditionally dominated by UMNO, who has always been able to fend off other contenders. PPBM's Malay agenda also bucks the trend among Malaysian opposition parties who usually prefer to take a more multiracial and multicultural approach. This is a bold strategy, and makes clear that PPBM aims to replace UMNO as the political party for ethnic Malays in Malaysia. Bearing in mind that UMNO today is led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is suffering from various allegations of corruption and whose popularity rating has been very low for many months (Time, 23 May 2017), the establishment of PPBM is a development that cannot be ignored.
Soon after the party obtained the RoS approval, Muhyiddin declared that it would work towards wresting the southern state of Johor from the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional (BN) (Bernama, 9 October 2016). This announcement was not surprising. Johor is after all Muhyiddin's home ground. Not only is he member of parliament for the Johor constituency of Pagoh, he was Chief Minister of the state from 1986 to 1995. Johor is also the birthplace of UMNO and has remained the party's bastion since 1946, which makes the proclamation by Muhyiddin worth scrutinizing further. Is this a realistic target for the fledgling party? This chapter seeks to answer that question.
It presents the author's analysis of media coverage and academic literature on the topic, together with findings from extensive fieldwork conducted between April and August 2017. During the fieldwork, interviews were conducted with national, state and divisional leaders and activists of PPBM, other parties in the opposition coalition, and UMNO.
Foreword
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Summary
In 2016, when ISEAS published the book, The SIJORI Cross-Border Region: Transnational Politics, Economics, and Culture, co-edited by Francis Hutchinson and Terence Chong, Malaysia was on the cusp of major political change. The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition secured a parliamentary majority in the 2013 general election, but lost the popular vote. This book, the second in a series of three, began in 2016 and took three years to complete, by which time the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition had ousted the incumbent to become the ruling party. Johor, Peninsular Malaysia's southernmost state, also fell to PH, which secured thirty-six out of fifty-six seats in the state parliament.
Johor enjoys a central place in the SIJORI region. Over the last two decades, it has seen significant political and economic developments. Its economic and social interactions with Singapore and proximity to the Riau Islands have contributed to its stellar growth. The state's population grew from 2.7 million in 1990 to 3.7 million in 2017. These factors facilitated Johor's industrialization drive as well as economic diversification, and altered its politics, society and environment. The establishment of Iskandar Malaysia in 2006 further accelerated these developments.
Today, the close economic and people-to-people relations between Johor and Singapore continue to flourish. Both are connected to each other by cross-border networks in sectors such as electrical and electronics, oil and gas, logistics, as well as agriculture. In Iskandar Malaysia, health and education services are new elements of this co-operation. In the near future, the proposed rapid transit system to link Johor and Singapore will further enhance interactions between them. The growing importance of their interactions saw Singapore establishing a consulate in Johor in November 2009.
Francis Hutchinson and Serina Rahman, the co-editors of this book, have assembled a team of twenty collaborators. Their collective work will contribute to a better understanding of the key transformations that have taken place in Johor since its embrace of export-oriented industrialization in 1990, and the different influences to which the state has been exposed as a result of its position within the Malaysian Federation and the SIJORI Cross-Border Region.
Section I - Economics
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Sources for the Johor Maps
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The maps presented in this book are based on site-specific field studies, official datasets and online resources compiled by Karoline Kostka and Hans Hortig between October 2018 and April 2019. They are uniquely produced for this publication.
The authors gathered additional insights into the Singapore-Johor-Riau region during their work at the Chair of Architecture of Territory at the Singapore ETHCentre, Future Cities Laboratory (FCL), from 2013 to 2015. Further discussions and feedback from the editors Francis Hutchinson and Serina Rahman helped to shape the final version of the map sections.
The most significant sources for creating the base map that was used in the various sections are:
• Open Street Map (OSM), Open source geo-referenced information, data retrieved in the period of October 2018 to April 2019.
• Natural Earth, free vector and raster map data, https://www.naturalearthdata. com/downloads/ (accessed December 2018).
• Johor State Structural Plan 2030 (Draft), Draf Gambarajah Utama Rancangan Struktur Negeri Johor 2030, http://geoportal.johor.gov.my/petaawam/rsnj2030 (accessed February 2019).
• University of California San Diego, Institute of Oceanography, “Measured and Estimated Seafloor Topography”, https://topex.ucsd.edu/WWW_html/ mar_topo.html (accessed November 2018). The maps in each section are based on these sources, and then respectively adapted by data from the following sources.
Introduction
Malaysia and Johor
Global Administrative Areas. “GADM dataset of Global Administrative Areas”. https:// gadm.org/index.html (accessed November 2018).
Marineregions. “Maritime Boundaries—Exclusive Economic Zones”. http://www. marineregions.org/eezmapper.php (accessed January 2019).
Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency. “Malaysia Maritime Zone”. https://www. mmea.gov.my/eng/index.php/en/citizens-and-public/36-malaysian-maritime-zone (accessed November 2018).
Section 1: Economics
Mobility and Transport
Open Sea Maps. “Ferry Connections”. http://www.openseamap.org/index.php?id=openseamap&no_cache=1 (accessed November 2018).
Industries and Trade Regimes
Malaysian Investment Development Authority. “Infrastructure Support”. http://www. mida.gov.my/home/infrastructure-support/posts/?lg=EN (accessed November 2018).
Royal Malaysian Customs Department, “Zon Bebas”. http://www.customs.gov.my/ms/ pg/Pages/pg_fz.aspx (accessed November 2018).
Kostka, K., and H. Hortig. Mapping via Google Maps, Wikimapia, Bing Maps, October 2018 to April 2019.
Healthcare Facilities
Peta Kemudahan Kesihatan. Map of Health Facilities, GeoJohor Land Use Portal, http:// geoportal.johor.gov.my/en/petaawam/kesihatan (accessed November 2018).
Ormond, M., and C. Lim, C. 2018. The Private Healthcare Sector in Johor: Trends and Prospects. Trends in Southeast Asia, no. 17/2018. Singapore: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
Abbreviations
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16 - Housing Policy in Johor: Trends and Prospects
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Housing development in Johor has undergone profound transformation over the last few decades. High-rise apartments are now a common sight in downtown Johor Bahru. Luxury enclaves, complete with gated security and leisure facilities, encroach on waterfront land along the Tebrau Strait. Foreign developers have built new townships on reclaimed land, exhorting international buyers to invest their future in the project as well as the rest of Johor. This chapter will examine housing policies and development strategies in Johor, especially those related to the establishment of Iskandar Malaysia (IM). The history of Johor's housing trends and its prospects in the near and medium term will also be analysed. This chapter argues that the launch of IM had a far-reaching impact not only on housing stock, but also on property ownership practices in Johor.
There are three main sections in the chapter. The first section focuses on housing provision and policy in Johor with an analysis of statistical data such as housing stock and distribution of income. The section will ascertain the manner in which the state government manages Johor's housing blueprint. It also discusses associated opportunities and challenges faced by the state government and housing developers, both private and government-linked corporations (GLCs).
The following section illustrates overall practices of housing development in Malaysia since independence. This section considers how housing is managed under national development plans, by-laws, and policies. We examine the major agendas and aspirations for housing in Malaysia and how housing provisions is carried out at both federal and state levels. We also look at the roles of the different layers of government and private developers in housing provision and how these roles evolved in tandem with global trends of economic liberalization. We then take a closer look at housing trends in southern Johor over the last decade, especially those related to the implementation of Iskandar Malaysia.
Acknowledging the rise of Iskandar Malaysia as a regional business hub and its profound impact on Johor, the third section adopts a grounded approach in presenting two case studies to make sense of the housing situation in the state. These projects are Medini Iskandar Malaysia (Medini) and Forest City, two of the largest housing projects within Iskandar Malaysia. It will also reflect on the rather different business models, architectural concepts, and development strategies of both projects.
Johor
- Abode of Development?
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In 1990, the Malaysian state of Johor—along with Singapore and the Indonesian island of Batam—launched the Growth Triangle to attract foreign direct investment. For Johor, this drive was very successful, transforming its economy and driving up income levels. Today, Johor is one of Malaysia's "developed" states, housing large clusters of electrical and electronics, food processing, and furniture producing firms. While welcome, this structural transformation has also entailed important challenges and strategic choices. After three decades, Johor's manufacture-for-export model is under question, as it faces increasing competition and flat-lining technological capabilities. In response, the state has sought to diversify its economy through strategic investments in new, mostly service-based activities. Yet, Johor retains pockets of excellence in traditional sectors that also require support and policy attention. The state's economic transformation has also been accompanied by far-reaching political, social, and environmental change. Not least, Johor's growing population has generated demand for affordable housing and put pressure on public services. The strain has been exacerbated by workers from other states and overseas. These demographic factors and large-scale projects have, in turn, put stress on the environment. Building on earlier work by the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute on the Singapore-Johor-Riau Islands Cross-border Region, this book focuses on this important Malaysian state, as it deals with important domestic challenges on one hand and strives to engage with international markets on the other.
19 - Johor: Abode of Development?
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
This volume has evaluated myriad aspects of Johor's current reality, setting out many of the key issues facing Peninsular Malaysia's southernmost state. It has illustrated in maps and words the workings of different sectors of Johor's economy, its unique political context, and the myriad social and environmental challenges it is facing.
This publication is the second in a series that focuses on the Singapore-Johor- Riau Islands or SIJORI Cross-Border Region (CBR). Unlike the first of the series, The SIJORI Cross-Border Region: Transnational Politics, Economics, and Culture, which takes Singapore as the anchor-point for the geo-economic entity, this volume on Johor and the third volume on the Riau Islands focus on the other two territories in the Cross-Border Region. They explore how these territories are influenced by their belonging to a larger political entity—Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively—yet are also shaped by their connections to their neighbouring territories.
While analysis on the SIJORI CBR may tend to be overly shaped by Singapore's influence, so, too, work on Malaysia and Indonesia can focus overmuch on the Klang Valley and Java, respectively. Consequently, these two tomes also seek to redress the geographic imbalance in the study of these two countries by deepening our knowledge of two economically vital but physically non-central territories.
One key date that both Johor and the Riau Islands share is 1990, when both territories sought to market their economies through the Growth Triangle, comprised of these two entities plus Singapore. The benefits of this partnership have been deep and far-reaching, as the economies of both the Malaysian and Indonesian territories underwent structural change on the back of heightened investment flows and the construction of cross-border production networks (Hutchinson 2015).
With this as a backdrop, the guiding questions for these two books are:
• Is the manufacture for export model put in place by Johor and the Riau Islands still valid, and what effect have measures to catalyse new sectors had?
• What have been the political, social, and environmental impacts on these territories of the rapid economic development set in motion since the early 1990s?
• How are these two territories evolving in response to developments within their respective countries on one hand, and the SIJORI Cross-Border Region on the other?
List of Maps
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6 - EduCity, Johor: Its Promise and Challenges
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Private higher education in Malaysia has seen robust growth since the introduction of the Private Higher Education Institutions Act (1996) (Act 555), which legalized these institutions. To transform Malaysia into a global higher education hub, as first outlined by the National Higher Education Strategic Plan (2007–20), the government has sought to offer a wide range of courses and programmes through private universities and colleges as well as international branch campuses with competitive tuition fees.
This chapter examines the development of EduCity, an integrated learning hub situated in Iskandar Malaysia in the state of Johor. The idea for an integrated learning hub built around multiple universities was first hatched in 2007, and in 2011 the first institution moved in. In exploring the challenges and underlying issues involved, this chapter aims to shed light on the private higher education sector in the country in general.
Several site visits were made to the EduCity campus and to the temporary city campus. On 17–23 August 2017, we conducted interviews with academics and administrators in the various universities and with policymakers. In addition, policy documents from the Malaysian government, Johor State government, Iskandar Regional Development Authority, and the respective universities were consulted.
The chapter first outlines how EduCity was conceptualized and discusses the role of EduCity Iskandar Sdn Bhd (EISB) as the “driver” and “owner” of EduCity. It then studies the huge challenges that the creation of an integrated learning hub involves.
JOHOR AND ISKANDAR MALAYSIA
Over the past five decades, the economic structure of Johor has evolved substantially. The state started off as an agriculture-based economy, as its flat and fertile land was well suited for the production of primary products for export such as palm oil, rubber, pineapple and coffee. But faced with volatile commodity prices in the 1980s, Johor sought to develop its manufacturing sector (Hutchinson 2012).
The Economic Plan for Johor (1990–2005) advocated greater commercialization of agriculture and encouraged more knowledge- and capital-intensive industries (UPEN Johor 1989). In the subsequent Johor Operational Master Plan (1996–2010), the service sector was added as a target growth area. This highlighted strategic investment in infrastructure and skill provision to foster high-value services (RMA Perunding Bersatu 1996).
Prologue
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Summary
This book has been three eventful years in the making. As we began to gather the stories, data and information that make up the pages of this publication, Malaysia was still under Barisan Nasional (BN) rule and under the leadership of Najib Razak. As our chapters began to take shape, the 14th General Elections captured everyone's attention, and some research findings were released to the public to share our perspectives. Then, the unthinkable at the time happened—BN was voted out and Pakatan Harapan (PH) took over the reins in Putrajaya, with Mahathir Mohamad once again Prime Minister at the age of ninety-two.
As Malaysia's people and myriad observers ran the gamut of emotions, expectations and critical reflection, we worked to amend our content to meet the changes of the day. Where possible, the writers tweaked content to include the unprecedented changes that were afoot and include projections of where the new regime might take the nation. The book was then sent to publication in 2019.
Just as the manuscript was going through the necessary processes of copyediting, proofreading and typesetting, however, political commotion erupted once again in Malaysia's halls of power. In what still remains a somewhat confusing turn of events, an attempted coup took place, Mahathir Mohamad resigned as Prime Minister, his own party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM or BERSATU) split into two, and the faction led by Muhyiddin Yassin pulled out of the PH coalition. The country was effectively without a government for eight days as various individuals sought an audience with the King for approval to regain or retain power. On 1 March 2020, Muhyiddin Yassin was sworn in as Malaysia's 8th Prime Minister, leading a loose coalition of previously ousted parties under the banner of Perikatan Nasional.
Following this, the COVID-19 pandemic effectively ground the world to a halt. At the time of writing this prologue, Malaysian borders are closed, barring selected export of goods to Singapore and highly controlled returns of Malaysians working, studying or living overseas. The nation is on its 64th day of various permutations and phases of Movement Control Orders (MCO), and many in Singapore (where this book is being published) are also working from home.
12 - The Johor Sultanate: Rise or Re-emergence?
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PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES
Malaysia is a monarchy—albeit one that is sui generis. Rather than following a single line of succession, the kingship rotates among a group of traditional rulers—or sultans—who head nine of the country's thirteen states. Although some of the sultanates predate the arrival of Islam in the region, they are now closely associated with the religion and have been a part of the Malayan peninsula's political context for 600 years.
During the precolonial and colonial eras, the rulers had a wide scope of prerogatives but many of these were relinquished during Malaysia's transition to independence. At present, the sultans are ceremonial rulers, and executive power rests with the prime minister at the national level, and chief ministers and menteris besar at the state level. That said, they are responsible for religion and Malay culture within their respective states, while their historic and symbolic importance as well as a number of constitutional provisions allow their influence to extend significantly further.
Over the past few years, these rulers have begun to assume a more visible role in the country's political life. In some states, they have chosen to withhold their consent for the appointment of menteris besar and, in Perak in 2009, the sultan played a decisive role in toppling the coalition in power (Faruqi 2010, p. 145). Collectively, the sultans have also weighed in on national-level issues such as the quality of governance and rule of law (Borneo Post Online, 7 October 2015).
Of the traditional rulers, the Sultan of Johor, Ibrahim Ismail, has been arguably the most notable. Part of his public persona revolves around his extensive collection of vehicles. He recently purchased a blue and gold 737 Boeing, which will be used to “promote Johor” and allow him to travel the world like his ancestors “who once travelled around in ships” (Star Online, 1 March 2016). He has also given another plane to the Johor soccer team, which is owned by his eldest son, the Crown Prince (Rakyat Post, 2 August 2016).
Contributors
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List of Tables and Appendixes
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14 - Johor Remains as the Bastion of Kaum Tua
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INTRODUCTION
In 1916, Haji Abdul Karim Amrullah, an Islamic religious scholar (ulama) from Sumatra, made a sneering remark about the Mufti of Johor.
To become a Government Mufti in Malaya is a great glory. You have an official uniform, with a whole banana-comb of epaulettes on the shoulder, a jubbah [Arabicstyle garment] embroidered with gold thread, a silk turban, and your own car. The ra’ayat [people] fear and obey you, eat the scraps from your table, your spat of sireh [betel leaf]. And if you want to get married … Bismillah [anytime with God's consent]. (Roff 1994, p. 67)
Muftis are religious scholars whose role is to provide guidance to the Muslim community and issue fatwa (religious rulings). In Malaysia, Muftis are appointed by the Malay Rulers. Ideally, an alim (singular for ulama) must not blindly serve the interest of ruling elites; instead, they must be pious individuals who protect the interests of the religious community. Haji Abdul Karim's harsh words showed that he must have felt strongly that the Johor Mufti of his time had been falling far short of those ideals.
To be sure, Haji Abdul Karim and the then Johor Mufti came from rival schools of thought. Haji Abdul Karim was a key player in the reformist/modernist movement in Sumatra, which called for Indonesian Muslims to return to the fundamentals of the Quran and the hadith (sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad). The movement appealed for “pure” Islam in Indonesia, one that was erased of local beliefs coloured with mysticism and irrationalism.
The reformists’ position on theology, rituals and cultural practices was in fact quite similar to that held by Salafi-Wahhabi scholars. Salafism is a Sunni orientation that can be traced back to the theologian Ibn Taimiyyah (b.1263–d.1328). It urges Muslims to return to Islam's pristine past, and considers the first three generations after Prophet Muhammad's death as the ideal period for Islamic societies to copy. Salafis believe that ideas and scholarship generated by savants of these three generations should therefore be applied in contemporary social and political life. One of the main tenets of Salafism is its rejection of Islamic innovations. Its followers can however be either progressive or regressive in their religious outlook. For progressive Salafis, reliving the system of the first three generations after the Prophet means the upholding of its values and principles.
Frontmatter
- Edited by Francis E. Hutchinson, Serina Rahman
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- Book:
- Johor
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 24 November 2020
- Print publication:
- 01 September 2020, pp i-iv
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