Will PAS get stoned if it does Hudud?
Zakiah Koya, Fz.com
PAS is definitely digging its own grave with the Hudud issue and while at it, is also entering the trap of Umno. Umno, which opposed Hudud entirely to the extent of threatening to “kill off” the economy of Kelantan should it implement Hudud, has done a complete turnback and is now leading PAS along with it.
Obviously, the Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakub does not seem to understand the whole concept of Hudud in the first place – for he has made it to be more of a punishing law with his explanations than the concept of deterrent law.
Every time I interviewed the former Kelantan menteri besar Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, also the Supreme Leader of PAS, he has always explained it as deterring laws, never as punishing laws.
Ahmad seems to be falling into the BN media trap where he is fixated upon explaining how hands are cut off and people will be stoned. This is despite after decades of PAS having been unsuccessful to make themselves heard when they tried to explain that for them the Hudud is to be a deterrent, a scare. BN has been going on about the cutting off hands ever since PAS came up with the Hudud issue.
Yet, Ahmad has “kacau” everything and gone to town with how hands will be cut by surgeons and how one will be lashed.
A number of Kelantanese residing outside Kelantan said that with such a start, they do not want the Hudud that PAS is pushing onto Kelantan or Malaysia for that matter. They said they only want the humane essence of Islam to be put into the Federal Constitution, not another set of laws.
An Umno member in Kelantan cheekily stated that Umno tops can afford to support Hudud in Kelantan now because none reside in Kelantan and no one will get their hands cut off or stoned.
Anything fair and just is Islamic, one need not go to the extremes to prove their belief in God.
PAS has been going on and on about Hudud for decades now, PAS’ tops know very well that there is no way Hudud can be implemented in Kelantan or this country, not legally, nor by referendum of the public.
Also, PAS tops know very well, if they indeed did go ahead and push for Hudud in Kelantan without the Federal government’s approval – which they very well know they will never get – they will lose all help from the Federal government.
Thus, now the Hudud has become the political toy it has always been for PAS to dangle before its members in the kampungs. For as the current Kelantan deputy menteri besar Datuk Mohd Amar Abdullah once told me in an exclusive interview on Hudud that it will only be implemented “when the time is right to implement it, the people are ready – at least mentally.”
Unfortunately decades later, with the much confused explanations on the Hudud that it will implement, the question remains: Are the Kelantan people ready for it mentally when many are still ignorant of the basic facts?
He also did say that he is extremely cautious for there may be overzealous executors, as has happened in countries like Pakistan and Nigeria.
The problem PAS is facing now is that it assumes its party members are all for Hudud, but it does not realise that it is the only opposition party which has the yes-men culture.
