Soi Lek disagrees with Umno ally over hudud
Ida Lim, The Malaysian Insider
Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has openly disagreed with his Umno colleague in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) that introducing hudud, the strict Islamic penal code, here will not impact non-Muslims, adding to the protracted debate over religious rights in multicultural Malaysia.
“Maybe he did not do his homework. I am disappointed with what he said,” the MCA president was reported as saying today by English-language paper The Sunday Star.
Dr Chua was referring to Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, who had earlier this week said hudud could only apply to Muslims as they come under the jurisdiction of the Syariah courts.
“Therefore, hudud law will not impact non-Muslims,” Jamil Khir, the minister for Islamic affairs, told Parliament in a written reply.
He had based his reply on the Federal Constitution, where Islamic law falls under the jurisdiction of each state and is only applicable to Muslims.
“Therefore, if hudud is to be implemented in Malaysia, then the Syariah Court would only have jurisdiction over those who practise Islam in accordance with the Federal Constitution,” Jamil Khir had said.
Malaysia’s dual-track court system has resulted in an blurring of lines in an increasing number of legal disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims over their constitutional rights.
Dr Chua had last week said many Chinese voters are “also aware that the DAP has been lying when it said that hudud will not affect the non-Muslims”.
MCA has been using the hudud issue to warn non-Muslims, especially the Chinese community, away from voting for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in the coming polls, insisting that the pact’s “dominant” partner PAS would insist on its implementation despite its ties with secular DAP and PKR.
Hudud has remained a sensitive touch point in Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy, which has a 60 per cent Muslim population, with political parties continuing to spar over the subject in the run-up to the 13th general election.
The idea of an Islamic criminal code has been used to either scare the minority Chinese voters, or shore up support among the majority Malay-Muslim community.
The Malay community is seen today as split three-ways among the ruling BN’s mainstay and the country’s biggest Malay party, Umno, the opposition’s Islamist PAS, and PKR, which is seen as an urban liberal party.
MCA had also previously warned that Muslim MPs would unite to amend the Federal Constitution in favour of hudud and the Islamic state if PR takes over, but DAP’s Lim Kit Siang had dismissed it as a “lie” to stop the Chinese community from voting for the opposition.
Lim had said that there were only 130 Muslim MPs in the country, while 148 MPs are needed to make up the two-thirds majority for a constitutional amendment.
