Hudud, the genie who won't return to the bottle

In Malaysiakini Stanley Koh wrote MCA hypocrisy over hudud in KT campaign.

Stanley was referring to the MCA ‘playing up’ on the hudud issue when Husam Musa of PAS acknowledged that the Islamic Party still wants to implement the Islamic legislation of punishments for specific crimes.

Anwar Ibrahim had assured the non-Muslims that the hudud isn’t applicable to them but as we read in Malaysiakini news article Karpal: Anwar's statement on hudud misleading good olde Karpal Singh, chairperson of the DAP, said Anwar’s claim is bull.

Karpal also warned that it’s unconstitutional for PAS or PKR to implement the hudud.

Anyway, Stanley Koh had sneered at the same MCA whom he said had barely whimpered in protest when former PM Dr Mahathir declared in September 2001 that “Malaysia is already an Islamic state”.

But Stanley also (fairly) wrote Dr Ling (former leader of the MCA) had asserted that, whatever name Mahathir had chosen to describe the country, the federal constitution has not changed.

I have always said that Dr Mahathir's declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic state was a political manoeuvre to outflank PAS, by out-Islamising the Islamic Party.

But the hudud is a completely different ballgame altogether. As I had posted in The Fatwa of Khalsa warrior Karpal Singh, there are prescribed (mandatory) and very severe punishments for ‘crimes’ such as ‘zina’ or illegal sexual intercourse, where the offenders, if they happen to be mature, married Muslims, will be stoned to death – yes, death because that’s what ‘capital punishments’ mean.

Muslim bachelors or non-Muslims get flogged instead. Did you get that, about non-Muslims getting flogged? So I wonder whether Anwar Ibrahim knows what he has been talking about …. but then he’s Anwar!

Now, some non-Muslims hate UMNO so much that they have dismissed the hudud issue as a BN scare tactic to sabotage the PAS candidate, and will, regardless of PAS hudud, still vote for Abdul Wahid Endut of PAS.

So far so good – a case of either believing or disbelieving Anwar Ibrahim’s assurance that the hudud will NOT affect non-Muslims.

Like Karpal Singh, I don’t ;-) wakakkakakakaka, not because he is Anwar (admittedly I never did trust Anwar Ibrahim ever since he was Education Minister) but because once the hudud genie is out, we can never ever get it back into the bottle.

But alas, thus far it has all been about non-Muslims, hasn’t it?

(A) Anwar said hudud won’t apply to ‘us’ non-Muslims – we believe him, or

(B) Anwar said hudud won’t apply to ‘us’ non-Muslims – we don’t believe him!

But what about the Malays?

Are we assuming every Malaysian Muslim (Malay and non-Malays) automatically support the implementation of hudud?

Have we even asked any of them?

No, not according to Hafiz Noor Sham who wrote an articulate piece in the Malaysian Insider titled Time to kill it, meaning the idea of implementing hudud should be ‘killed’. He wrote:

The problem with the argument that hudud affects only Muslims assumes that all Muslims are for the implementation of hudud.

I definitely would not mind if hudud is implemented as long as individuals, and not communities, can choose between hudud – and truly, sharia – and secular civil law.

Under the current proposal, I and many others do not get that choice.

I have also mentioned this but, just to stress it again, the argument that non-Muslims need not worry with the implementation of hudud also builds unnecessary walls among Malaysians, further dividing an already divided society.

Furthermore, it is hard to imagine how the minority will be left unaffected if there is great development within the majority community.

If the non-Muslims are prepared to buy that argument set forth by Pas and PKR that hudud only concerns Muslims while ignoring the fact that under the proposal, Muslims who prefer a secular environment instead would be forcefully subjected to religious laws, well, perhaps we all should turn blind eyes to each other’s problems.

If my problem is not yours, then the discrimination that the non-Malays suffer is not my problem either. Each time you suffer injustice, too bad because it shall not be mine. Those are non-Muslim problem and so, why should I care at all?

Is that the new arrangement you prefer? Shall we make that the basis of our social contract, our new Constitution?

If the answer is no, then Pas must lose in Kuala Terengganu. It is regrettable that the implication is victory for BN, especially when it is becoming clear that BN has learned nothing from March 8.

Nevertheless, I am unwilling to sacrifice my ideals for too much political expediency. There is such a thing as a limit and this whole issue on hudud, and especially the argument brought forward by Pas and supported by PKR, has gone over and beyond mine.

Hafiz considers a vote for PAS as a vote for hudud, as well as a total disregard by non-Muslims for the considerations of Muslims who do not want hudud.

What say you to his appeal ... and let's have a bit of intelligent debate instead of the usual fanatical mauling of him (or anyone who disagrees with or does not support Anwar Ibrahim) as an UMNO stooge ;-)

... unless of course you are not up to it wakakakakakakakaka