DAP MPs cautious but hail PAS’s hudud delay

KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 — PAS' decision to delay tabling two private members’ bills on hudud met with guarded reception from ally DAP today, whose lawmakers expressed hope the Islamist party will now end its bid to introduce Islamic penal law in Kelantan.

Bukit Bendera MP Zairil Khir Johari said that the delay to allow further study by a technical committee was a “right decision” due to the complexity of the subject.

“The issue of hudud requires a lot of discussion and debate. All over the Islamic world, it is also a subject of controversial discourse,” Zairil said, adding that healthy discussion contributed to “societal enrichment.”

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua hoped that the technical committee that will involve the federal government and Kelantan government will lead PAS to reconsider their objective to implement hudud in Kelantan.

“I hope they can come to a conclusion that the hudud is not appropriate to Malaysia, which is a multicultural and multi-religious country,” Pua said when contacted by The Malay Mail Online.

But one DAP lawmaker greeted the news with suspicion, saying that the yet-to-be-formed committee may be ploy against Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

“It can be used to divide PR,” Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming said. “Because all along they (Barisan Nasional) try to create division, this is one of the strategies they are using.”

PAS today said it will delay the tabling two private members’ bill needed to pave way for the enforcement of hudud in Kelantan, with president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang agreeable to Putrajaya’s proposal for a technical committee to examine the implementation.

Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin — also the Umno deputy president — said his party will push for a national-level committee on hudud.

Muhyiddin had said both local and foreign experts on hudud would sit in the proposed committee. The specifics of the committee are not yet known.

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 laws have not been implemented yet.

PAS is now looking for parliamentary approval to implement hudud. It plans to put forward two private members’ bills in parliament. One seeks approval for punishments including whipping, stoning and amputation while the other seeks to empower Shariah courts to mete out the sentences.