PETALING JAYA: The Barisan Nasional (BN) government blundered big time on the hudud issue, said 1Malaysia Foundation chairman Chandra Muzaffar.
Chandra said that in an attempt to appease the Malay voters, BN has forgotten that their real power base comes from Sabah and Sarawak.
“And the Christian indigenous group in East Malaysia hold a certain clout. Even the Muslims there are different,” said Chandra at a forum organised by Global Movements of Moderates Foundation (GMMF),
“Remember that a governor from the state has urged his people to reject West Malaysia’s brand of politics,” said Chandra.
Also present were GMMF chief executive Saifuddin Abdullah, Bar Council president Christopher Leong and Islamic Renaissance Front chairman Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa.
He was referring to Sarawak governor Abdul Taib Mahmud who made the call after quitting as the state chief minister.
Last month, the Kelantan state government announced that it would submit two private members’ bills to the Parliament to implement hudud in the state.
The move received support from several Umno leaders, including Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Jamil Khir Baharom. who said that the government would not object it.
However, the Kelantan government postponed tabling the bill after the federal government announced that it would establish a technical committee to study hudud implementation in Kelantan.
Islamic scholars should have spoken up
Targeting Jamil, Chandra said that the minister handled the matter poorly unlike former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad back in the 1990s.
“When the Kelantan state government pushed for hudud in the state in 1993, Mahathir blocked it by saying that he was opposed to PAS’ brand of hudud, not Islam.
“And he was proven right when it was discovered that two aspects of the Kelantan hudud system came from the Pakistani system,” he said.
Chandra, who is also an academic, warned that if Kelantan was allowed to implement hudud, other states with significant Muslim population would be pressured to follow suit.
“It will create a dual legal system that will run contrary to Article 8 of the Federal Constitution which guarantees equality before the law.
“In effect, it will widen divide between Muslims and non-Muslims and create a communal damage,” he said.
Chandra also criticised several prominent Islamic scholars who chose to be mute when the hudud debate was raging. However, he did not name the experts.
He said that if the learned scholars have spoken about hudud, the debate would not have taken a political turn.
“I’m not concerned about politics but I’m sad that there are few Muslims scholars who know Islam well chose to keep quiet. If these people have spoken out, things would have been different,” said Chandra.
