Promoting hudud law is a step backwards for modern Malaysia

It is time that PAS and other opposition leaders who promote hudud to look at Islamic state nations and see how mandating ultra-conservative laws can lead to unnecessary bloodshed. In Afghanistan, for example, a woman was recently shot in the head several times by her husband on suspicion of adultery while being cheered on by a crowd of men. The said video circulating online has earned international outrage.

As suggested by an editorial by social activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir in The Star (19 July 2012), I strongly urge PAS which thinks implementing hudud law is for the welfare of Malaysians to watch the video in all of its gruesome detail and think again.

If Malaysia is ever to develop as a fully industrialised nation, it is imperative that the government does not promote such backwards, antiquated thinking. In this modern world, a woman should not have to fear for her life because a few people suspect her of wrongdoing. What Malaysia needs is not PAS leaders who perpetuate misogynistic nonsense (e.g. PAS spiritual leader DAto’ Seri Nik Aziz’s video exhorting rape against women) but government officials who progress the country to its full potential by promoting gender equality, economic prosperity and social cohesion.

Mandating hudud law for non-Muslims is unconstitutional

A careful reading of the Federal Constitution shows that hudud laws cannot be fully implemented in Malaysia because they cannot be imposed on non-Muslims. PAS may claim to represent the needs of all Malaysians, regardless of ethnicity but existing policies and actions in PAS-led administrations in Kelantan and Kedah like fines against non-Muslim employers whose employees had donned sleeves not considered long enough despite covering the elbow, forbidding licenced betting and alcohol sales, gender segregation, ordering a Buddhist association’s building to have Islamic designs casts doubts unto PAS’ claims and DAP’s and PKR’s inability to control PAS.

If DAP and PKR were truly multiethnic parties concerned about issues that affect all Malaysians, then it should not be silent about PAS’s stance on the enforcement of hudud law. But the two other parties have not publicly quelled public fears by insisting in writing into the Buku Jingga that hudud law is not part of Pakatan’s agenda.

I strongly urge all Malaysians to consider Pakatan’s blatant ignorance of the Constitution as well as its multiple stances on hudud law in the next general elections. Malayia’s future as a modern, developing nation depends on it.

Tan Cheng Liang
Wanita MCA Deputy Secretary General

Wanita MCA Penang State Liaison Chairman