Thursday 23 April 2015

Baru's motion on hudud law rejected, Speaker says Adenan has made it very clear hudud will not be implemented in Sarawak



Baru Bian: Thank you, Tuan Speaker, my motion reads whereas: (1) The founding father, Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman stated it plainly in Parliament. I quote: “I would like to make it clear that this country is not an Islamic State as it is generally understood, we merely provided that the Islam shall be the official religion of the State”. [Hansard 1 st May 1958].

(2) Article 4(1) of the Federal Constitution states: “This Constitution is the supreme law of the Federation and any law passed after Merdeka Day which is inconsistent with this Constitution shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void”.

(3) The Supreme Court in the case of Che’ Omar Che’ Soh against Public Prosecutor [1988] 2MLJ 55 led by the then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas affirmed the supremacy of the Federal Constitution as stated under Article 4(1) and that Article 162 preserves the continuity of secular law in Malaysia which existed before the Federation of Malaysia.


(4) The Cobbold Commission recommended that although Islam is the religion of the Federation the country remains a secular state and that Sarawak shall have no official religion.

(5) That in 1993, the Kelantan State Assembly had passed The Syariah Criminal Code (II) Enactment 1993, (“the Enactment”) which allows the Islamic penal code-hudud, to be implemented in the State of Kelantan which inevitably may affect even non-Muslims including Sarawakians working and residing in Kelantan.

(6) On the 18th of March 2015, an amendment to the said Enactment referred to as Syariah Criminal Code (II) 1993 (Amendment 2015) was again approved by the Kelantan State Assembly, amongst other things which were to increase the powers to the Syariah Court to pass sentences and to clarify the Syariah’s Court jurisdiction over persons professing the Islamic religion.

(7) It was widely reported that PAS President Tuan Haji Abdul Hadi Awang would table a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament to amend Article 76A(1) of the Federal Constitution to empower the Kelantan State Government to implement the said Syariah Penal Code-hudud in Kelantan.

(8) The Honourable Chief Minister of Sarawak had publicly on many occasions declared and affirmed that such Syariah Penal Code-hudud shall never be implemented in the State of Sarawak.

Wherefore this Dewan is moved and resolved:

 (1) That should a Private Member’s Bill be tabled by the PAS President Tuan Haji Abdul Hadi Awang or any member from PAS in Parliament to amend Article BELUM DISUNTING 22 APRIL 2015 78 76A(1) of the Federal Constitution to empower the Kelantan State Government to implement the said Syariah Penal Code-hudud in Kelantan, that all the thirty one (31) Honourable Members of Parliament from Sarawak must vote against such a bill.

(2) That any attempt to amend the Federal Constitution by any person or persons to allow the introduction and implementation of the Syariah Penal Code-hudud in any States in the Federation of Malaysia is a fundamental breach to the spirit and provisions of The Malaysia Agreement 1963 where our founding fathers agreed that Malaysia remains a secular state, although Islam remains her official religion.

 (3) That Syariah Penal Code-hudud shall never be introduced in the State of Sarawak. (4) That Sarawak remains as a secular State without any official religion as recommended by The Cobbold Commission and agreed by our founding father.”

Thank you.

Tuan Speaker: Ahli-ahli Yang Berhormat, this is a very lengthy motion because it contains 8 paragraphs of preamble, 4 resolutions in 426 words. It exceeds the 250 word limit as laid down in Erskine May’s Parliamentary Practice.

On this ground alone this motion can be dismissed.

As stated in paragraph 6 of the preamble on 18th March 2015 the PAS State Government of Kelantan passed the Hudud Law. Its next move is to table a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament to amend Article 76A(1) of the Federal Constitution in order to legitimise its State Syariah Law.

This proves that any implementation of Hudud Law at State or National Level requires an amendment to Article 76(1) Federal Constitution.

Let alone attempting to amend Article 76A(1) of the Federal Constitution the State Government of Sarawak has made its stand unequivocally and abundantly clear.

In the words of the YAB Chief Minister: “Let me say here now, hudud will not be imposed in Sarawak. So I say to the opposition, stop harping on this matter and no Bible as far as we are concerned will be confiscated.” (Hansard dated 15th May 2014).

This stand has been repeated outside the House by YAB Chief Minister and the Barisan Nasional Leaders.

The stand of DAP Sarawak on Hudud is equally clear when Honourable Member for Kota Sentosa reportedly said in The Borneo Post dated 1 st April 2015, page 4.

He said: “We all know that the implementation of Hudud Law will do no good to Sarawak. Therefore, there is no reason for us to continue co-operating with PAS which has made Hudud Law their agenda.” “Are you going to help PAS win seats in the coming state election so that Sarawak DUN will have some PAS elected representatives?”

If the answer is positive, he said PKR would be doing a disservice to Sarawak by contributing to the growth of PAS in the State thereby helping indirectly its hudud agenda.

If the answer is ‘No’, then there is no point to put up a pretence of coalition when one does not help each other.” The Honourable Member for Kota Sentosa was lambasted by PKR Sarawak as reported in Borneo Post dated 2 nd April 2015 on page 5.

The motion mentioned specifically by name and singled out the President of PAS.

Jesus said: “He who is not with me is against me.” Mathew: 12.30. Again, “He that is not with me is against me.” Luke: 11.23.


Islam is a vast Shoreless Ocean. It depends on which part of the ocean you wish to plunge into its unfathomable depths.

There are a total of 6,666 verses in the Holy Quran. Only 6 verses are on Hudud. Of the 6, they are:- (1) Drinking alcohol and gambling: AL MAIDAH: Verse 90. (2) Allegation of adultery against innocent women: AN NUR:Verse 4. (3) Adultery: AN NUR: Verse 2. (4) Theft: AL MA-IDAH: Verse 38. (5) Robbery and Destruction: AL MA-IDAH: Verse 33. (6) Apostasy: AL BAQARAH: Verse 27.

All these Surahs begin with: “In the name of God, the most compassionate and merciful.” Each and every 114 Surah, begins with: “In the name of God, he most compassionate and merciful” except Surah AT TAUBAH.

But the Surah, does not contain any Hudud. However in Surah AN NAMLU, “In the name of the God the most compassionate and merciful” is mentioned twice: 1 in the beginning, the other one in verse 30, IN NAHUU MIN SULAIMAN WA INNAHUU, BISMILLAHHIR RAHMAN NIR RAHIM.

The Quran mentions of: “Merciful” – 114 times “Mercy” – 147 times Total : 261 times as compared with 6 verses on Hudud.

“In the name of God, the most compassionate and the most merciful” at the beginning of the Quran: 114 times. It was narrated in the Tradition that when a man was drunk in the presence of the Prophet, The Prophet hit the drunkard with his shawl – so fast and so brief nobody counted the times the man was hit with piece of cloth.

The intent is educational not the infliction of physical pain. The most strict of the 4 righteous caliph, Amirul Mukminin Umar ibni Khatab Radhinallahu Anhu, saw at night a house with a light on. He knew the man was drinking. He jumped over the fence, broke open the door and told the man he committed hudud.

The man replied, “Yes, I committed one hudud but you committed 3 hudud. First, you trespassed over my land, second you broke my property and third when you entered my house and did not give salam.”

The caliph apologised, but told the man not to do it again. During the same caliph’s rule, when there was famine and starvation, hudud was suspended for 7 years.

Under the Hudud Law in a joint robbery by 4 men, 2 of whom are Muslims and 2 nonMuslim, upon conviction the 2 Muslim would lose their limbs, while the non-Muslim, merely go the jail with their limbs intact.

This is grossly unfair to the Muslims. On the other hand Hudud cannot be imposed on the non-Muslim because they do not acquiesce and consent to it.

According to Professor Tariq Ramadan of Oxford University, no criminal system is sound if it is discriminatory on one half of society.

It is not just the Quran that has Hudud, the Bible has its Hudud too.

DEUTERONOMY: 22:22 “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die.” LEVITICUS: 20:10 “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife – with the wife of his neighbor – both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.”

But mercy is shown. “If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” John: 8:1-11.

The crime of sodomy on which the PKR Leader was convicted came from the word “Sodom” – a city filled with gays in the Old Testament. GENESIS: 19: 24-25 “Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the LORD out of Heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain destroying all those living in the cities and also the vegetation in the land.”

LEVITICUS: 20:13 on homosexuality “If a man lies with a male as a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death, their blood is upon them.”

Based on these teachings, early this month, a number of States including Indiana and Arkansas in the United States had passed the RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RESTORATION ACT discriminating against gays and lesbians. See Time Magazine dated 13th April 2015, pages 32-39.

The CNN under the programme of GPS by Fareed Zakaria told the world that for the first time in the history of the United States, the Chief Justice and another Justice of the United States appeared before the Senate testifying that the American Criminal System had failed.

The policy of incarceration and infliction of pain had failed with the US paying the highest per capita for every prisoner. And the prisoners who had served their sentences returned back to prison. This is because the criminal system’s rationale and raison d’ĂȘtre are based on infliction of physical pain through imprisonment and long secluded isolation from other prisoner, not educational.

According to Amnesty International in 2014, 2446 number of people had been sentenced to death – an increase of 28% compared with 2013. This figure was later quoted by Time magazine dated 13th April 2015, page 9.

Constitutions alone can neither prevent nor stop the rising tide of crimes, criminals and bad laws.

What is needed is men and women and Government to bolster and buttress Good Laws and Righteous Constitution with unswerving faith and unwavering belief and in the protection and preservation of respect and tolerance, harmony and goodwill among races and religious in a multi-racial and multi religious society.

That these God Laws and Righteous Constitution must be protected by the valiant arms of warriors against the knife of an assassin. “The law is not an instrument by which a citizen is threatened. The law is a causeway that so long as a citizen keeps to it he is in safety”.

Motion is dismissed

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