KOTA KINABALU, April 11 ― Peninsular Malaysia risks contravening the 1963 federation agreement and as a result will no longer be seen to be a part of Malaysia if hudud is implemented in Kelantan, Datuk Yong Teck Lee has claimed.

The Sabah opposition leader said that it will not even be a case of Sabah and Sarawak leaving the federation but more of west Malaysia separating itself from Malaysia if hudud is enforced in any state.

“Hudud law is so fundamentally against the concept of Malaysia. It will make Malaysia unrecognisable from the 1963 agreement, whereas Sabah and Sarawak remain more Malaysia than Malaya.

“So it would be Malaya leaving Malaysia and not Sabah and Sarawak leaving the Federation,” the Sabah Progressive Party president told Malay Mail Online when contacted this week.

Earlier this week, former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor said the implementation of hudud may lead Sabah and Sarawak to conduct a referendum for independence as the states had never agreed to the hudud law before forming Malaysia.

Referring to the Scottish independence referendum last year as an example, Abdul Rahim had said that during negotiations before Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak were opposed to placing Islam as the religion of the federation in the Federal Constitution.

He said that Sabah and Sarawak were never promised the implementation of hudud and the majority of Bumiputeras in Sabah and Sarawak are Christians.

“Referendum or no referendum, Malayan hudud law will lead to the eventual separation of Malaya from Sabah and Sarawak,” said Yong.

Bingkor assemblyman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan also said that implementing hudud will serve to fuel the rising anger of Sabah and Sarawak citizens towards the federal government.

However, he added that the Islamic penal law alone will not be reason enough to cause Sabah and Sarawak to seek independence.

“(If there is a referendum), it won’t be over hudud per se. But this issue will add fuel to rising unhappiness of Borneoans over their rights in Malaysia.

“The declining tolerance of Sabahans and Sarawakians over their dissatisfaction may lead towards demand for separation,” he said.

The Sabah Council of Churches said last month that PAS’s plans to enforce hudud in Kelantan amounts to a “betrayal” of Sabah’s trust when the state agreed to form Malaysia with Malaya and Sarawak.

Other groups have expressed similar views this week, including a pastors’ network and 33 civil societies in Sarawak, pointing out that Kelantan’s determination to enforce the Islamic penal system violates the secular foundation upon which Malaysia was formed.

Kelantan’s state assembly approved the Shariah Criminal Code (II) (1993) 2015 Enactment last month with 31 votes from PAS lawmakers supported by 12 from Umno.

However, in order to enforce the amended state Shariah criminal laws, PAS-led Kelantan needs bipartisan support from Umno and other federal lawmakers to pass Hadi’s two bills in the Dewan Rakyat.

Hadi served notice to Parliament on the proposed Bill on March 18, but parliamentary affairs minister Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim confirmed yesterday that the hudud debate has been deferred to the next Dewan Rakyat session in May.