KUALA LUMPUR, May 22 — Barisan Nasional (BN) lynchpin Umno is making a grave mistake if it uses hudud to break up the federal opposition as this could trigger the pact’s downfall in Sabah and Sarawak instead, 1Malaysia Foundation chairman Dr Chandra Muzaffar said.

Chandra pointed out that BN relies heavily on its vote bank in the east Malaysian states, which are predominantly Christian, particularly in Sarawak where the Christians make up 40 per cent of the population.

“Even if it was an issue on power, it’s a total blunder because the power base of BN is Sabah and Sarawak... if that base shifts away from BN, it collapses.

“In Sabah and Sarawak, hudud is a very difficult issue to handle... because these are the Christian indigenous population.

“This is going to be a major challenge for the BN,” he said at a roundtable discussion on the implementation of hudud by the Global Movements of Moderates (GMM).

Despite winning only 47 per cent of the popular vote in the May 5 elections, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak saw his coalition keeping the government with a simple majority, bagging 133 federal seats against Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) 89.

The victory was largely thanks to BN’s performance in the east Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, which stayed loyal to the ruling pact unlike the states in the peninsula.

During the polls, BN won a staggering 22 out of 25 parliamentary constituencies in Sabah and 25 out of 31 seats in Sarawak.

“That’s why I think if you want to play politics by playing with hudud, think of all the consequences on it,” warned Chandra.

“Sheer electoral politics... even the Muslims there will not accept it because they are integrated, I don’t know how BN wll extricate itself out of this,” he said.

He took issue with the setting up of the technical committee to contemplate the implementation of hudud, saying the federal government has gotten itself in a “mess”.

“If Umno is in the hudud game, it is more because of politics. In the case of PAS, it is dogma that they have subscribed to since the party’s formation in 1946,” said Chandra, adding that no Umno leader, starting from Tunku Abdul Rahman, were committed to the cause of hudud.

Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) legal advisor Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi, however, disagreed, saying “enticing PAS” using hudud was BN’s ‘masterstroke”.

“The whole issue of hudud in Parliament was raised by a BN MP, who then kicked the ball into PAS’ court,” said Shad Saleem.

He also noted that the argument that hudud would be confined to Kelantan was inaccurate as once the amendments are approved and passed, all other states that accepts Islam as its official religion will also proceed to make the changes.

Chandra added that Muslims MPs would be put in a spot on whether to refrain from voting or to vote for a legislation they may not agree on — both decision come with heavy consequences.

“It is going to affect all of us, so there needs to be the widest possible consultation with the non-Muslims, at the international level... (with) other jurists worldwide and also intra-Muslims consultation,” said Shad Saleem.

“At the moment, a small coterie of elite is making these decisions, and all those who are not Al-Azhar graduates must keep quiet,” he added.

In 1993, the PAS state government passed the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II, allowing it to impose the strict Islamic penal code in the state. But the implementation of that has been stonewalled in the past.

PAS was hoping to obtain parliamentary approval to implement hudud through two private members’ bills last month but the plan has been postponed following staunch resistance from its PR partners, particularly DAP. 

The Islamist party had then conceded to a proposed bi-partisan technical committee, comprising of members of the state and the federal government, to study the implementation of the Islamic penal code.

GMM will compile the feedback from the roundtable discussion today for the perusal of the technical committee.

In Islamic jurisprudence, hudud covers crimes such as theft, robbery, adultery, rape and sodomy.

Punishments for the crimes are severe, including amputation, flogging and death by stoning.