KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — De facto law minister Nancy Shukri today echoed Umno minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s view that hudud would be impossible to implement in Malaysia.
She stressed that punishments for offences under the Islamic penal code would clash with those already enshrined under civil criminal laws, and that implementing hudud might result in “double jeopardy.”
“I am in agreement with Datuk Nazri. It is just not possible… In Sarawak, I don’t think they will get the vote for hudud,” the Sarawak minister told reporters when met at the Parliament lobby.
“There needs to be a restudy if we were allow hudud to pass through. Which is why I don’t think its possible,” Nancy added.
Yesterday, Nazri said those bickering over the hudud law and its planned implementation in Kelantan are “stupid people” as the controversial Islamic penal code runs counter to the Federal Constitution and would therefore never be implemented in Malaysia.
“They are all stupid, whoever is talking about this from whichever political party. This can only happen if there is an amendment to the Federal Constitution.
“So why even talk or bother about something that is against the Constitution and will not happen? Exercise in futility,” the former de facto law minister said yesterday.
Nazri, who is now tourism minister, stressed that punishments for crime and theft under hudud could not be passed without first amending the Constitution as the civil courts already have clear punishments for such offences.
Empowering the Shariah Courts to carry out these punishments would require two-thirds parliamentary majority to amend the Constitution, he pointed out.
Nazri also predicted that PAS would fail in its attempt to push through two private members’ bills on hudud in Parliament as there were “so many other pressing issues to discuss.”
“Umno knows hudud can’t be passed, it is an exercise in futility,” he reiterated.
PAS-ruled Kelantan passed key amendments to its Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 last Thursday in a move to enable the eventual implementation of hudud in the Malay-majority east coast state.
All 12 Umno state lawmakers voted for the amendments but the ruling party’s national leadership has yet to declare if the same support would be given to PAS’s hudud ambition at the federal level.
All Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties including Umno are expected to issue a joint statement to declare its position on the controversial issue.
The statement is expected to precede PAS’s attempt to table a private members’ Bill in the ongoing Parliament session that will enable Kelantan to carry out punishments under hudud. Among others, the Islamic criminal justice system prescribes amputation as punishment for crimes like stealing.
PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang last week served notice to Parliament on the proposed Bill but BN’s law minister Datuk Nancy Shukri said it may not make it into the order paper for the current session as there are many others on the schedule.
PAS only has 21 MPs in the lower House and would need to rely on Muslim MPs from other parties in order to get a simple majority of 112 votes to get the Bill passed.
