The consensus has fully expressed the Chinese community's strong objection against the implementation of hudud. Malaysia is a multiracial and multi-religious country, forcefully imposing the Islamic criminal law is definitely not meeting the country's condition. PAS must respect the wishes of non-Muslim communities and religious groups, and not forget that many PAS candidates were able to win in the general election last year because of the support of non-Muslims. How could they be so ungrateful and just ignore the existence of non-Muslims?
The PAS state government of Kelantan has passed the hudud in the state legislative assembly years ago. However, since hudud is still under the federal government's authority, it has tried various ways to seek constitutional amendments in achieving its ambition of Islamic state. However, the bill seeking for constitutional amendments requires two-thirds of support in the Parliament to be passed and it might not be easy to achieve. Therefore, PAS is going to table a Private Member's Bill in June as it requires only a simple majority to be passed. Although non-Muslim lawmakers from both the ruling and alternative coalitions have expressed their objection against the Bill, Muslim lawmakers are still the majority in Parliament and thus, the possibility of passing the Bill remains high, worrying the non-Muslim community.
Although the four Chinese-based component parties of the BN, including the MCA, Gerakan, SUPP and Sabah's LDP have solemnly said that they are against the implementation of hudud, the attitude of Umno lawmakers remains uncertain. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Selangor Umno liaison chairman Datuk Seri Noh Omar and some others have been moving closer to religion, and given positive responses to hudud, making it seem not difficult to get a 112 votes of support in the Parliament. The attitude of the other two component parties of Pakatan Rakyat has remains vague, but it is a clear fact that the two parties, particularly the DAP, are powerless to stop PAS from tabling the Bill. The DAP will be caught in an embarrassing predicament if it can do nothing to help but just watch the Bill to be passed.
PAS keeps on saying that the Islamic criminal law will only be enforced to Muslims, but based on the examples of Aceh and Brunei which have enforced the law to non-Muslims as well, once the law is implemented, non-Muslims will certainly be affected, too. It is because according to hudud, if a non-Muslim commits a crime with a Muslim, they can be charged together in Islamic courts. Didn't an Ulama from Kelantan actually cited the Kitab Majmu'Imam Nawawi and emphasised that the Islamic criminal law is applicable to all, including non-Muslims?
Thus, the Private Member's Bill is expected to bring a far-reaching impact and once it is passed and hudud is implemented in Kelantan, it will lead to a breach to the country's system, not only affecting the life of non-Muslim communities and national development, more seriously, it would lead to the existence of two conflicting sets of criminal laws in the country, trapping the judicial system in a chaos. The consequences would be disastrous if more Muslim lawmakers vote for the Bill and even allow the Bill to be passed with a two-thirds majority in the Parliament, in other words, enabling it to be implemented through constitutional amendments.
Source: MySinChew
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