ABSTRACT

This chapter explains deeply historical and the role of Islam in Malaysia from the Malacca Empire and the colonial period right through to 2017. It also examines a particular facet of the constitutional bargain that went into the making of Malaysia – how Islam came to be the Federation's 'official religion' and how this has impacted the pluralism that existed in Malayan society. The impetus for Malaysia, or rather Greater Malaysia, gained momentum only in 1961 after the Tunku's momentous speech at the Foreign Press Club luncheon at the Adelphi Hotel in Singapore. The construction or formation of Greater Malaysia was thus neither a natural progression nor an organic process in the twilight of British colonial rule in South East Asia. The continued retention of Syariah law for personal matters – albeit in diluted fashion – was a clear exception granted even under British law that in a sense, privileged Malays in a plural polity.