KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 — PAS spiritual leader Datuk Hashim Jasin expressed shock today that former Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim) president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Middle East-educated Datuk Mujahid Yusof Rawa opposed public caning.
Hashim said, however, he was not surprised that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad criticised the recent whipping of two lesbian women in Terengganu under Shariah law that was carried out before about 100 people.
“But when former Abim president Anwar Ibrahim also questioned public caning, I was shocked,” Hashim said in a speech at PAS Youth’s 59th muktamar in Kuala Terengganu that was broadcast “live” on Facebook.
“I was also an Abim member, a strong supporter of Anwar. I defended him in the 70s. I can’t believe he is like that.
“And what was more unbelievable was when the religious minister — who graduated from the Middle East from Al-Azhar, who is fluent in Arab and English, enough said about Malay — also questioned public caning.”
PKR president-elect Anwar, who helmed Abim from 1974 to 1982, told reporters in Manila, Philippines, that he did not support the Terengganu public whipping that lacked due process and understanding.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mujahid, who is from Parti Amanah Negara, called for a review of public caning sentences, saying the presence of “two or three officials” could also be considered “public”.
Two young Muslim women were recently given the maximum punishment of six strokes of the cane each in a Shariah courtroom in Terengganu for attempted same-sex relations in a car in April, an offence under the state’s Shariah law.
