In this article, I wish to help our friend Hadi in understanding the meaning of communism in the context of what is “modern learning” as opposed to traditional religious education and also global coexistence as opposed of living in your own kampung.

Recently, Hadi is said to have equated the DAP with communism and that communism is an ideology that disbelieve in God and that celebrating or honoring communism whether in important historical dates as well as personalities would make that person a hard core communist supporter.

Clearly to me, Hadi is in great need of education outside his own madrasah in order to be a contributing citizen, a community leader of all and perhaps even someday, the prime minister of a nation.

However, before all that can happen, I wish to help him understand what it means to live in modern Malaysia and belong to a global community.

Firstly, in modern learning, a person can click on to the internet and get a lot of information on DAP, Barisan Alternatif and Pakatan Rakyat.

One will find that Hadi’s party was a long time member of these political coalition that fought with Umno and the BN.

I followed many of Hadi’s speeches and ceramahs and nowhere did he declare DAP a communist party.

That is history. If DAP indeed was and always had been a communist party, then PAS was a good friend of communism in Malaysia’s history!

Secondly, communism, as explained in easy reading sources like Wikipedia, is an economic model, not a religious belief.

A religious belief is one that contains the idea of an afterlife, a divine entity as a God or Allah and perhaps a list of Messengers of God like Prophets and Messiahs.

Communism simply is a way of dividing essential life resources equally among the community without anyone having more than the other.

Communism is an economic model, not a religious belief.

Communism is opposed to capitalism where one can be born rich, inherit wealth and does not have to work a day in his or her life.

Interestingly, this economic model is almost the same as the kibbutz communal sustainable living concept in Israel.

I saw a few young Malay travelers experiencing the kibbutz life in Israel and they noted how the community ate together in a large hall and any young man or woman can choose to drive one of thirty vehicles owned by the community.

I also understand that the religious group in Malaysia called Al-Arqam also used this kind of communal ownership and distribution of wealth in their kampung living.

So, communism is an economic model, not a religion.

If communism is against Islam so much, then why does one internet source quotes that there are 23 million Muslims in China and another quotes that there are 28,000 mosques in China with 19,000 in Xinjiang alone? Should not Islam have been eradicated totally by the time communism came to power?

We all know that Najib as the prime minister signed a memorandum of understanding to borrow heavily from China. Does that make Najib a communist? Or does that make Umno and BN also communist? Do visitors from Malaysia who visit China for travel and business also supporters of communism?

This is called global coexistence. We depend on each other of different nations for help, learning and other things.

I have many PhD students from China at UCSI University. So, does that mean I am also a godless communist?

Once I graduated two Shi’a Iranians in PhD when I was with a public university in Johor, and so does that make me a disloyal Sunni and a closet Shi’ite?

This is called academic sharing. I have also been invited to attend Christmas celebrations by my Christian friends and so does that make me a Christian?

I have also spoken at Buddhist events and does that make me a kafir?

No, this is called community living and mutual respect.

Chin Peng was a Chinese Malayan who belonged to the communist party. Rashid Maidin was also a high-ranking member of the communist party. They were both communists. But they were also Malayan, Malay and Chinese who have family members in this country.

This is called a family affair, not a political one.

However bad Najib is, I don’t believe he should be buried in an unknown island somewhere but he should be respected as a member of a large family in Malaysia.

The above take is how modern learning helps modern people relate to one another.

Modern learning does not support the idea that people should follow one person’s take on everything without critical questioning and rationalizing.

In the olden days, information sources were scarce and thus, those tok gurus who had traveled extensively to acquire knowledge and wisdom from many teachers living very far from each other had the right to consider themselves exclusively knowledgeable, and those learning from them should accept without much questioning their teachings.

Not so nowadays. Universities should close down if they use archaic methods of teaching and knowledge development like this tradition.

Similarly, if Hadi insists on making everyone around him who does not believe in his own brand of Islam or history an enemy, then he deserves to spend the rest of his life on a deserted island with only fishes, birds, baboons, monkeys and squirrels as well as a few dogs to “agree” or not dispute his ideas and inclinations.

But all of us have to live in Malaysia with its multiplicity of cultures, faiths and lifestyles.

All of us also have to live in a larger global community and grow together as complementary and interdependent human beings and cultures in peace and harmony.

Perhaps PAS and Hadi are not ready to accept the idea of modern education and a global living community.

For me, that we depend on each other as human beings, that we learn from each other to overcome weakness and that we honor each other with dignity, are the testimony of true religious spirituality.

(Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely.)