Kelantan... the conservative state

Wikipedia described kelantan as a conservative state governed by a conservative islamic party. Is that true? Are Kelantanese really a bunch of conservatives and traditional that they are anti modernism? I would say yes if we look at the general population, the most of the kelantanese. If we look at pak cik2 kampung at the surau, we will see that they are really conservative. they are really.. erm.. "malay". They are usually negative minded, passive and talk a lot rather than do the job. However, they are good muslims. They pray five times a day, they pray jamaah at the surau, they hear sermons from tuk guru after maghrib prayers, they read quran, chant zikr and so forth. However, they are not professionals when it comes to job. They go to their job places wearing white ketayap but then they came in late and went off early. They talk a lot rather than do the job and they didn't take care of the cleanliness.
In this sense, they are not really muslims. Seeing in this perspective, Micheal and Paul from Australia are more muslim then they are although they are atheist. They came in early for the job, really focus on their tasks, keep their home and town clean by not littering, they care for the environment, they do charity and so many good things. Only that they don't believe in Allah and His prophet. If these two good people from Australia came to Kelantan, how possibly can Kelantanese attract them to embrace Islam? They'll see that Islam makes us like this. They'll say that Islam makes our culture like this. It's a sad thing.
Actually, Islam in kelantan for centuries has been Malay-ized. It has been so corrupted by our malay culture that the true colour of Islam has diminished. In this way, secularism are able to triumph. Here in Kelantan, we can see two main groups of population. The first one consists of those Pak Cik and Mak cik who go to Surau everyday for Solat Jamaah (the one i described before). The second group consists of people who don't go to surau for solat Jamaah. Who don't obey the basic pillars of Islam. Both are not professionals, and both are conservative. Ironically to a certain extent, both groups have Mat and Minah Rempit as their children.
Supposedly, those who went to surau and hear the sermons from tuk gurus can heal the second group of the population. However, they cannot. This is because of the perception that Islam only limited to the surau, not to their real life which are their works and family. They hear sermons to ease their heart, not to learn what Islam is and thus not to spread the message of islam. What about the tuk gurus? What are kind of sermons they give that make kelantanese like this?
Suposedly, if the true message of Islam is given, the audience, the pak cik and Mak cik kampung, are able to spread the message to their family members and colleagues and thus modernize them. However, Kelantanese in general are still conservative, passive, traditional and not professionals. Simply put, they are not modern. Islam promotes modern. Our prophet says that hikmah are Muslim's property(aukamaqo). Modernism is a good movement and that's one of the effect of the real implementization of Islam. Our Prophet Muhammad agrees with the action of certain sahabah for installing lamp at the mosque in madinah replacing the initial bonfire set up for night time ceremony. The installation is a modernizing process and the Prophet agrees with it.
Why does all these happens? This is what i discover. conservativeness itself began at the surau and masjids. The tuk gurus, they learn at the pondoks which spawned all around Kelantan and southern Thai. At the pondoks, the syllabus are based on the muktabar books from muktabar ulama who lives 100 to 500 years ago. These ulama are really muktabar. However one problem is, these books are classics. The ulama wrote the books in their era, not in our time. The interpretation of the books by the pondok students will put them in those ulama's eras thus making them conservative. Some of the books have contents that oppose logics.
there's one sickness in the Malay culture. Not daring to oppose what the ulama and tuk guru says, thinking that everything they say are right. How does this happen? This is the famous says uttered by tuk gurus at the surau: "Kito tok leh guno ppalo otok kito nok mike. palo otok kito ni bodo. ikut hok qure royat." (we cannot use our head to think. our mind is stupid, just follow what the quran says). Then, who are brilliant? Since the meaning of the quran are read and interpreted by the tuk gurus and ulama's then the pak cik and mak cik will follow what tuk guru and ulama say who came from pondoks, not what the quran says. this opposes what Allah says in the Quran. the ayat Ali Imran 190-191 told us to ponder at the nature and THINK. Interpret the nature, learn, think, be ULUL ALBAB (men who think). they just forgot that ulama and tuk gurus are normal human being, not prophet. To err is human. This is ultimately true. No human is perfect. Even the prophet makes mistakes. But our prophet Muhammad has perfect conscious from Allah (teguran). A clear example can be seen from surah Abasa. I guess, this is one of the reason why the GENERAL Kelantanese are conservatives.
I never deny that many of the Kelantanese are modern, thinkers, succesful people and real Muslims; rich, educated, influential but humble and follow what Allah commands and avoid doing what Allah deter. These are exceptional people who really understand the message of Islam. I am interested to include one idea from one muslim, malay proffesor. He said that modernization is not westernization. Modernization promotes the improvement from whatever conservatives for the betterment while westernization is the assimilation of western culture into one local culture. Islam promotes modernization not westernization. Many are confused by the term modernization by saying that moderization is westernization. Kelantan nowadays is still conservative and some of the youngsters are already westernized.
Let us all improve the knowledge tradition in Kelantan. Modernize it with the real message of Islam. It starts with ourselve. All those amalan like reading the quran, matsurat, solat five time a day at the mosque helps us to be a good, modern, proffessional muslim, not MAKE us become good. Ahmad is not a good person if he solat five times a day but go to work late and lazy in doing his job. Instead, people will say Micheal and Paul are good individuals. Ahmad is a good person, a good muslim if he prays five times a day and be proffesional at work, and teach his family about the message of Islam. Islam will only rise again if its true meaning is conveyed throgh the individuals, their family and last but not least, through the daulah. to see islam rise, start with ourselves.


ps: every single sentence in this article is arguable. Please think when u read and ready to critize either me, yourself or whoever you see around you. I am ready to be critize and i make mistakes. Ultimately, this article have mistakes but me as weak person didn't see it. Whatever good comes from Allah and whatever bad, keep it to yourselves as something to ponder and learn from. Wallahuallam.