Kudud agenda will be against the Constitution: DAP
Published on: Sunday, December 28, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: Implementation of Hudud law in Kelantan could negatively affect the Federation of Malaysia and Federal Constitution, said Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sabah Vice-Chairman Chan Foong Hin.He said the recent rift in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) appears to be worsening with the PAS-led Kelantan state government pushing hard for their hudud agenda. "As DAP Parliamentary Leader Lim Kit Siang has pointed out, if the hudud agenda goes ahead with the backing of both PAS and UMNO, it may spell doom not only for PR but also the Barisan Nasional (BN).
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"The situation is actually far worse than what Kit Siang has warned us about, not only will it impact and shift the political ground, it may spell doomsday for the Federation of Malaysia!"As reported, Kelantan will have a special legislative assembly sitting on 29th December 2014 to push through the implementation of hudud, and Kelantan MB Ahmad Yaakob had said the sitting will go on despite the worsening flood conditions in the east coast state," he said in his Friday statement.Theoretically, Chan said it is not impossible to have one country with two systems of criminal justice. For instance, he said Nigeria - a federation - has Syariah law system for 12 of its states and Indonesia – a unitary state – has a special arrangement with Aceh to implement Syariah law."Kelantan has every right to demand for the implementation of hudud law within its borders but it must seek a new Federal Constitution that has a looser arrangement and more powers to be given to the state.
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"The complexity of having two criminal justice systems must be thoroughly thought out. PAS has every right to propose hudud, but please provide the detailed studies and insight beforehand," he said.Chan said the State-level hudud law is a constitutional and not technical matter as it is also a federation-wide and not a Kelantan-only matter.
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The issue, therefore, he said, cannot be resolved and decided unilaterally by the Federal-Kelantan Joint Technical Committee, and pushed for implementation unilaterally by Kelantan state government."Sharing the same sentiment is the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) legal advisor Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi - the argument that hudud would be confined to Kelantan was inaccurate as once the amendments are approved and passed, all other states that accept Islam as its official religion will also proceed to make similar changes. (Shad Saleem is reported to have presented his views during a roundtable discussion on the implementation of hudud organised by the Global Movement of Moderates in May this year. It is learnt that the majority of the speakers attending the discussion opined that hudud law was not suitable to be implemented in the Federation of Malaysia.)Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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