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Who can be the new Prime Minister of a new coalition government in Malaysia to defend the Malaysian Constitution?

DAP fully endorses the stand of G25 of prominent Malay former civil servants urging Putrajaya to uphold the Federal Constitution and that the implementation of hudud law means the abandonment of the path of moderation chosen by the country since Independence in 1957 and the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

The G25 statement said:

“The imposition of PAS’ hudud laws will signify to the world that Malaysia has abandoned the moderate path.

“We will be seen as a country governed by religious laws which are subjected to the vagaries of interpretation of the ulama who are also fallible human beings.”

I am not a Muslim but I am fortified by the G25 group’s citation of Islamic scholars for this position, especially Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi, who is chairperson of the World Union of Muslim Scholars, who said the application of Syariah must be governed by Ijtihad or creative thought, to determine how it would be enforced today as it would not be helpful to take rulings from ancient texts and apply them in totality to modern societies. Continue reading “Who can be the new Prime Minister of a new coalition government in Malaysia to defend the Malaysian Constitution?”

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Najib should be given another 48 hours to make his statement on the stand of UMNO/BN MPs on Hadi’s private member’s bill on hudud implementation in Kelantan

MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai seems to be having the “shivers” causing him yesterday to urge all to give the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak more time to make public the government’s stand on the PAS President and MP for Marang, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill on the implementation of hudud laws in Kelantan.

What is clear is that Liow is no more the confident self six days ago when he gave “exclusive leaks” to the media that Najib would announce the UMNO/BN’s stand on Hadi’s private members bill last Friday – and six days have come and gone, and Najib continues to suffer from “labour pains” without any sign that Najib would be opening his “golden mouth” on this issue.

In the past week, Malaysians have been told that the 13 Barisan Nasional component parties last Thursday and the Cabinet last Friday have reached a consensus to oppose Hadi’s private member’s bill on hudud implementation as it is against the Federal Constitution, unsuitable for a multi-racial and multi-religious nation like Malaysia and would have an adverse impact on the nation’s economy, foreign investment and development.

Why have the confidence expressed by the MCA and Gerakan Presidents and leaders that Najib would come out with a statement declaring UMNO/BN opposition to Hadi’s private member’s bill suddenly evaporated in the past week? Continue reading “Najib should be given another 48 hours to make his statement on the stand of UMNO/BN MPs on Hadi’s private member’s bill on hudud implementation in Kelantan”

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Lee Kuan Yew’s death – passing of an era

Lee Kuan Yew’s death on Monday at the age of 91 marks the passing of an era.

The tributes from world leaders in the past few days is testimony of the mark he had made not only in Singapore, ASEAN, Asia but in world politics in his transformation of Singapore in three decades from a backwater British colony into a first world country, or in World Bank statistics on GDP per capita PPP, into the fourth wealthiest nation in the world, after Macao, Qatar and Luxembourg.

Under Kuan Yew leadership, Singapore had punched above its weight in the international area in many areas of human endeavour.

This is something Malaysians should ponder long and hard, as to why we are losing out in the international stakes, as we are not only unable to punch above our weight in international affairs on many fronts, but even punching below our weight.

Singapore is set on many new challenges in the post-Lee Kuan Yew era, not least of which is how Singapore can continue to punch above its weight in many areas of human endeavour, but can also lead the way in upholding human rights and democratic freedoms.

(Media Statement after signing the condolence book on the passing of Lee Kuan Yew in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 25th March 2015)

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Cops overstepping legal limits in ongoing public crackdown, lawyers say

by Joseph Sipalan
The Malay Mail Online
March 25, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 – The police are acting beyond their legal means by relying on a law provision that has been declared unconstitutional to arrest people for participating in public shows of dissent, lawyers said.

They argued that the authorities cannot continue to detain individuals using disputed laws when the courts have clearly ruled against the admissibility of such legislation, even if an appeal is still pending.

“This is a worrying development. The authorities seem to take the position that just because an appeal is filed, it means there is no finality to the interpretation of the impugned provision,” said civil liberties lawyer Syahredzan Johan.

“This is a deliberate misapprehension of the law,” he added when contacted by Malay Mail Online. Continue reading “Cops overstepping legal limits in ongoing public crackdown, lawyers say”

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Going beyond the obvious in hudud discourse

By Wong Chin Huat
Malaysiakini
Mar 21, 2015

COMMENT There is perhaps no political debate more mislabelled and misleading in Malaysia than that of the so-called “hudud” law.

Hudud, an Arabic word, is the plural form of hadd (had in Malay), which means ‘limit’. It refers to fixed punishments mentioned in the Quran for certain crimes.

Section 4 of Kelantan’s Syariah Criminal Code II (1993) 2015 listed six types of crimes: sariqah (theft), hirabah (robbery), zina (adultery), qazaf (accusation of adultery without four credible witnesses), syurb (intoxication), and irtidad/riddah (apostasy).

The same is listed in Section 4 of Terengganu’s Syariah Criminal Offences (Hudud and Qisas) Enactment 2002 [Enakmen Kesalahan Jenayah Syariah (Hudud Dan Qisas) 2002].

The Brunei Syariah Penal Code Order 2013 lists two more types of crimes: zina bil-jabar (non-consensual adultery) and liwat (sodomy).

The most well-known of hudud punishments are stoning to death for adultery, and amputation for theft and robbery. Continue reading “Going beyond the obvious in hudud discourse”

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Stoning law sees Umno, PAS chase Islamic vote

By Bloomberg
Malaysiakini
Mar 23, 2015

Six months after Prime Minister Najib Razak stood before the United Nations and urged Muslims worldwide to be moderate in their religion, members of his own party are supporting a law that punishes adulterers with death and thieves with amputation.

Lawmakers from Najib’s Umno joined the opposition PAS to pass Islamic criminal law, or hudud, in the opposition-held state of Kelantan. The move has drawn criticism from other parties in their respective coalitions, while human rights groups say it’s an unconstitutional step for secular Malaysia.

Umno officials are burnishing their Islamic credentials to safeguard support among the ethnic Malay majority after the coalition retained power in 2013 by the narrowest margin since independence. The swing by Najib’s party to the right risks worsening race relations at a time economic growth is forecast to slow.

“What Umno and PAS are doing on hudud is not about Islam, it is about politics and staying in power,” said Noraini Othman, a retired sociology professor who co-founded a group promoting progressive views of Islam.

“Religious indoctrination has created extremist voices in these parties, in these governments, that have succeeded in becoming louder while the so-called moderates are now a silent majority.” Continue reading “Stoning law sees Umno, PAS chase Islamic vote”

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Seeing through the hudud controversy

By Liew Chin Tong
Malaysiakini
Mar 23, 2015

MP SPEAKS First of all let me stress that Muslims have the right to believe in hudud law. I respect that right, as much as I believe Muslims respect the rights of people of other faiths.

However in the case of the Kelantan hudud enactment, it is more than just a legal matter but rather as a political ploy meant to eliminate the progressives in PAS and to break Pakatan Rakyat in the process.

Worse than that, albeit unintentionally, the bickering and anger arising from the fiery emotional arguments could tear the nation apart.

The end game for those who designed the plot is to draw the battle line along a ‘Muslims versus non-Muslims’ conflict. Continue reading “Seeing through the hudud controversy”