A risk too large to take
With emotions running high in a Muslim society now tipping towards the conservatives, any idea that leans towards greater conservatism, including the hudud law, will have broad social basis to be made into a vastly popular policy and potential vote drawer.
Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily
The motion on the possibility of implementing the hudud law in Selangor is an absolutely unnecessary, foolish and dangerous political gamble.
The Umno assemblyman has proposed the motion on two possible motives:
1. As a tactic to win over the conservative Muslim society, and to show his religious fervor in winning him better political scores.
2. As a bait trying to incite the reactions from both DAP and PAS; a new crack will appear within the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat so long as DAP is strongly against the motion while PAS is in favor.
Whether it is meant to be a tactic or a bait, the main point is not about pushing ahead the hudud law in Selangor, but a strategy to defeat Pakatan.
Pakatan’s response will determine whether it is wise and matured enough.
Unfortunately this test will lie with the still young state assembly speaker Hannah Yeoh. If she is wise enough and her party DAP is one with responsibility, then she should know that this whole thing has been a set-up of Umno and should sternly rejected.
The speaker can always claim that the hudud law does not comply with the state and federal constitutions and is therefore inappropriate to be debated in the state assembly. Alternatively, she can say hudud is not an emergency issue that warrants a discussion at the state assembly.
Well, it is not so hard to nip the motion in the bud and there is no way for Umno to play the issue up again. Hudud will then not become a controversial issue in the Selangor state legislative assembly.
But, Yeoh is prepared to accept Umno’s motion, endorsed by the DAP leadership.
As I said earlier, getting into the game is not only a foolish poetical gamble, but an extremely dangerous one.
Yeoh is too young to understand that hudud law is nothing more than a political tactic that should not be debated in open, a social taboo that will only get more dangerous as the debates go.
Well aware of the dangers, the overly adventurous DAP has taken a risky move for the sake of its own interest.
Yeoh thinks she is being “neutral” in doing so, but such confused and risky neutrality is in reality irresponsibility that contravenes the duties of the state assembly speaker.
If DAP has adopted a neutral stand in hudud, why did it request the Dewan Rakyat speaker to reject PAS’ private bill for discussion in the Parliament earlier on?
DAP supports debates on hudud in the Selangor state assembly for own political considerations. Once all the party’s 14 state assemblymen (excluding the self-proclaimed “neutral” speaker) vote against the motion in the state assembly, DAP can rightly claim that it is against the hudud law, and has itself delivered from the ramifications over PAS and the hudud issue, saving itself some drained support.
The question is: while such an act is meant to protect the party, damages are nevertheless being done towards the community, in particular the interests of non-Muslims in the country.
Yeoh and her party can always explain that the motion is about the possibility of implementing the hudud law in the state and not about passing a particular bill. However, it is foreseeable that Umno, as the proponent of the motion, will fully back the motion. PAS will have to show its support on religious ground while PKR’s Muslim reps are not in any position to openly reject the motion.
