The Star, stand up for your rights, will you please?
To its credit, The Star’s managing editor P. Gunasegaram wrote a great article in response to the caning of three women, found guilty of having illicit sex by the syariah court. The article ‘Persuasion, not compulsion’ was originally available on TheStar Online.
Guna’s main point of contention is that the sentences meted out go against the sensibilities of most Malaysians, and therefore it’s incumbent upon the Government of the day to use the legislature to do the needful. I agree fully with that, and may I also add that the sentencing of those three women by caning goes against our constitutional guarantee that women are spared the rattan.
Then yesterday, a few Muslim groups lodged four police reports against the article. Familiar names there: Perkasa, Perkasa Selangor, Malaysian Islamic Consumer Association (PPIM) and Malaysian Muslim People’s Coalition (IRIMM). Their argument: you have “no right to comment about Islamic jurisprudence because he is not a Muslim”. And they alluded to say that the article “clearly wants to challenge (and) anger the Muslims and insult Islam”. Another classic example of politicising and silencing all forms of rational discourse by way of wild imagination.
