appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Afra Alatas

Mohd Faizal Musa

Comparing Malaysia to Palestine, as a Malaysian MP did recently, illustrates a reframing of the siege mentality with which segments of the nation’s Muslim community perceive their place in society.
By equating a sovereign nation with a stateless territory whose people have suffered decades of occupation and displacement, this distortion of reality risks deepening existing ethnic and religious divides in Malaysia.
On October 19, Ahmad Marzuk Shaary, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) MP for Pengkalan Chepa, wrote a social media post titled “Learning from Palestinian History: Let us not Repeat the Same Mistakes”. In it, he claimed that Malaysia’s Muslims had been “exiled from their own homeland” by non-Muslims.
Marzuk wrote that Jewish pendatang (Malay for immigrants) had initially gone to Palestine as visitors and were accepted on humanitarian grounds by the noble-hearted Palestinians. Eventually, they “controlled the economy, seized strategic cities, seized important lands and finally dominated politics”, he said. Consequently, Marzuk said the Palestinians became “refugees in their own land”, adding that “signs are already beginning to appear” that this history was repeating itself in Malaysia.

From Marzuk’s perspective – and that of his fellow party members – the situation of Malay-Muslims is similar to that of the Palestinians. In their minds, Malay-Muslims no longer have control over major resources, including land and properties. The pendatang to whom they have lost these resources are the non-Malays, specifically the Chinese, who are allegedly “arranging the map of political power” directly from Putrajaya.
This has long been the narrative peddled by segments of Malaysia’s Muslim majority, particularly the political elite, who see non-Malays as disloyal immigrants threatening their rights. This is the foundation of a siege mentality which has grown since the 1970s, under the guise of the ketuanan Melayu (Malay lordship/supremacy) narrative, which seeks to uphold their ethnic supremacy and special birthrights.
This is a false analogy. While Palestine has been illegally occupied by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and to varying degrees in the West Bank, Malaysia is an independent, sovereign nation. While most Malaysians have a legal entity they can call home, Palestinians are technically stateless. While the occupying forces in Palestine adhere to the colonial ideology of Zionism that seeks the construction of an “exclusivist homeland … through the displacement of the region’s indigenous populations”, there is no ideology uniting the so-called pendatang in Malaysia.
Malaysia’s legal and sociopolitical framework functions are based on a constitutional democracy, which enshrines the rights of racial and religious minorities. Thus, Marzuk falsely equates the systematic dispossession of Palestinians with the alleged loss of power of Malay-Muslims.
Marzuk’s remarks and those of his party colleagues are reflective of the increasing prevalence of a reframed siege mentality that distorts the sociopolitical and legal realities in the country through the lens of global Muslim victimhood.

This is not the first time a PAS member has employed this false equation. In 2021, for example, Penang PAS Secretary Iszuree Ibrahim claimed that the North Seberang Perai and Barat Daya districts had become like the West Bank and Gaza Strip in terms of the loss of Malay-Muslim ownership. Since Penang is governed by the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) and led by a non-Malay, non-Muslim chief minister, this analogy has been politically effective, especially during election campaigns.
This same narrative has been repurposed to oppose the proposed Urban Renewal Act (URA). The URA seeks to redevelop ageing urban buildings to improve safety, housing quality and infrastructure, while reducing the consent threshold among property owners to 80 per cent, 75 per cent or 51 per cent, depending on the condition of the buildings. Although the government guarantees a “one-for-one” replacement for affected residents, critics fear forced evictions, developer dominance, rising property taxes and the displacement of lower-income urban communities. Many urban developers in Penang are Chinese-owned, and some evictions have occurred in Malay-majority areas such as Kampong Baru.
While the framework has existed since 2013, the URA 2025 bill was presented for its first reading in parliament in August. To show their rejection of the bill, PAS organised a rally in Kuala Lumpur in October, claiming that the country would fall to “DAP control” if the “Urban Robbery Act” were passed. Held in conjunction with a rally organised in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla activists detained by Israel, PAS Secretary General Takiyuddin Hassan took the opportunity to link the URA to the Palestinians’ loss of land, an illogical comparison given the entirely differing contexts in Malaysia and Palestine.
This rhetorical manoeuvre allows PAS to infuse religious sentiment and anti-colonial sentiment into a local housing policy debate. This has transformed a development issue into a charged narrative of ethnic and religious dispossession. In fact, this narrative is being promoted to influence the urban Malay vote, a segment where PAS has far less traction compared with the rural or semirural areas. PAS has also said it will address the issue during the next general election.

Marzuk has faced strong backlash from DAP MPs, and even from within the wider Perikatan Nasional opposition coalition. They have called his remarks “extreme and unacceptable” and akin to declaring a “cultural war”. This narrative, if allowed to persist, poses a genuine threat to Malaysia’s political stability and social cohesion. The Madani government might be hesitant to respond firmly, possibly fearing that harsh measures would only reinforce the opposition’s portrayal of the administration as oppressive and unjust. That same reticence was evident during the PAS-led protests against US President Donald Trump in Kuala Lumpur during his visit to the city for the Asean summit, thus suggesting general caution on the government’s part.
Ultimately, the only institution capable of intervening with moral authority to remind PAS of the peril inherent in propagating such a distorted narrative is none other than the Conference of Malay Rulers, the key institution responsible for addressing racial and religious issues. By doing so, the Conference would be able to safeguard national unity and intercommunal harmony in the face of such misleading narratives.
Sharifah Afra Alatas is Senior Research Officer in the Regional Social and Cultural Studies Programme, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. Mohd Faizal Musa is a Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and an Associate at Weatherhead Centre Harvard University working on Global Shia Diaspora. This article was first published by ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s commentary website fulcrum.sg.


Why Brunei prefers ‘quiet diplomacy’ over confrontation in South China Sea

14 years later, ex-detainee repays Malaysia’s Najib for life-changing second chance

Malaysians joke their way through Negeri Sembilan royal row

Malaysia’s local acts feel left out of live music boom: ‘missing middle’

Malaysia

Malaysia is not Palestine. False equivalence fuels ethnic polarisation

Malaysia’s National Day celebrations held in Putrajaya on August 31. Photo: EPA

Palestinians walk next to destroyed buildings in Gaza City last month. Photo: AP

Supporters of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party and its political coalition, Perikatan Nasional, campaign in Penang ahead of Malaysia’s general election in 2022. Photo: Reuters

Seven of Malaysia’s sultans gather at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur in 2023. The Conference of Malay Rulers comprises the country’s nine rulers of the Malay states and the governors of the other four states. Photo: EPA-EFE

Malaysia’s Anwar casts doubts about Gaza ceasefire deal – ‘history shows otherwise’

The leaders of Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US display the signed document to support the Gaza ceasefire deal during a summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim delivering his budget speech in parliament on Friday. Anwar explained to parliament on Tuesday on why Malaysia gave conditional support for the Gaza ceasefire deal. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump and his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto attend the Gaza peace summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Monday. Photo: AP

Toilet water, snatched hijabs: Malaysian Gaza activists recount Israeli detention

Malaysians from the Global Sumud Flotilla prostrate in prayer upon arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Tuesday. Photo: EPA

A Malaysian Global Sumud Flotilla activist hugs his mother after his arrival in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Photo: EPA

Crew of Conscience, a Gaza-bound vessel which is part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, sit aboard the boat as they are intercepted by Israeli security forces on Wednesday. Photo: IHH/Reuters

Heliza Helmi (left) and Hazwani Helmi cry as they arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Tuesday. Photo: Reuters

Malaysia’s US$24 million Gaza aid pledge tests solidarity amid cost-of-living crisis

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks at a pro-Palestinian rally in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim delivers a speech during a pro-Palestinian solidarity rally in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

Protesters lay on the ground during a rally for Gaza in Kuala Lumpur earlier this month. Photo: EPA

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim speaks at Sunday’s pro-Palestinian rally in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP

This Week in Asia

Opinion

Asia Opinion

Such rhetoric paints Malays as the dispossessed natives of their own land and non-Malays as the occupiers


Such rhetoric paints Malays as the dispossessed natives of their own land and non-Malays as the occupiers.


Palestinian Territories

Israel-Gaza war

Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Asian Angle

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Such rhetoric paints Malays as the dispossessed natives of their own land and non-Malays as the occupiers

Such rhetoric paints Malays as the dispossessed natives of their own land and non-Malays as the occupiers