Hudud must not have double standard

KUALA LUMPUR: Although PAS has postponed the tabling of the private member's bill on hudud pending a technical committee study, several non-governmental organisations have expressed concern over its possible implementation.
At a forum titled "Hudud in Malaysia: Can We? Should We?" held at Wisma MCA on Sunday, several speakers suggested a test run of the controversial law on the rich and powerful.
Global Movement for Justice and Equality in the Muslim Family (Musawah) project director Zainah Anwar said while there must first be a fair and just society before hudud could be implemented.
It should also be known that in countries like Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Somalia and Pakistan where it is enforced, it showed that the law was inapplicable to the rich and powerful while the poor, illiterate and women are constantly persecuted.
Decades of discrimination against women in syariah courts and Islamic family laws do not inspire confidence that implementing hudud would be different, she added.
"(What if) we do a test-run of hudud on (government) ministers, members of parliament and royalty? Let's do a test run on them first.
"Hudud needs a just system to work and under a capitalist system, it would never work," she told about 150 participants.
Islamic Renaissance Front chairman Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa said the implementation of hudud is subject to human fallibility. "Therefore, it is not divine. All laws implemented by a state is thoroughly human and should be treated as such."
He said PAS's contention that hudud is fair to all and that it would decrease injustice in society, is invalid based on the cases of Brunei and Aceh where the laws are enforced.
He said the Sultan of Brunei, the royal family, any authority acting on behalf of the sultan and his family are exempt from the laws of the land, including hudud, according to their constitution while in Aceh, injustice has actually increased after the implementation of Islamic Criminal Law.
PAS Sepang MP Hanipa Maidin said that once a person is declared a Muslim, he or she must accept the Islamic laws as the word Islam itself means "total submission to God's will".
"Hudud is just another criminal law system among the many others in the world, with the only difference being that Muslims consider the Islamic law as divine," he said.
PAS research head Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the party is simply standing for the ultimate principle of Islamic law and hudud is not the "be all and end all" of the party's struggle.
Umno Youth executive council member Ustaz Fathul Bari said hudud is part of a wide field of Islamic law and it is the opinion of many learned Islamic scholars that it is divine.
Other speakers at the forum were Bar Council president Christopher Leong, Bar Council Constitutional Law chairman Firdaus Husni and Malaysia Syariah Lawyers Association president Musa Awang.
The Bar Council maintained that hudud cannot be implemented as the Federal Constitution specifically states that criminal law is under federal jurisdiction and could not be overrode by hudud, which would fall under the jurisdiction of the Kelantan state government.