MP wants Jamil Khir hauled up over hudud contradictions

(Malay Mail Online) – Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom is again being targeted with a motion for parliamentary censure, this time over his response to Putrajaya’s position on hudud implementation.

Tanjong MP Ng Wei Aik filed a motion this morning to refer the senior minister to the rights and privileges committee for allegedly misleading the House by taking conflicting positions on the implementation of the Islamic criminal law.

The DAP lawmaker claimed that Jamil Khir had on at least two occasions contradicted an earlier statement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who said in 2011 that the federal government will not push for hudud implementation.

The latest was a written reply to Ng’s question, dated June 11, in which the minister stressed that the federal government in principle “does not reject shariah criminal law including hudud”.

“Is this a position that has been agreed to during the Cabinet meeting?” Ng said in his motion, made available to the media.

In his written reply, Jamil Khir said the government realises that Islamic jurisprudence is suitable for use at any time or in any place or situation, echoing his earlier position when winding up points during the debate on the Royal Address when Parliament convened its first meeting of the year last March.

“In this respect, the government is constantly taking a measured approach to make sure shariah criminal laws are implemented including expanding the jurisdiction of the Shariah Court, upgrading the shariah judicial system and reviewing the position of Shariah Court judges,” he said.

Ng today argued that Jamil Khir did not state whether the Cabinet had agreed to Putrajaya’s current stance on hudud, raising suspicions that the minister was merely pushing his personal stand in an attempt to mislead Parliament.

He claimed that such statements could spark confusion and unrest in Malaysia’s multi-racial and multi-religious society; hence, the need to refer the minister to the committee to avoid a repeat of a similar incident.

Yesterday, DAP’s Sibu MP Oscar Ling Chai Yew tabled a motion to refer Jamil Khir to the rights and privileges committee for allegedly misleading the House by declaring Malaysia a non-secular state.

Ling claimed that Jamil Khir had cited an inaccurate description of Malaysia’s formation, arguing that three out of the four signatories of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 — Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak — did not have a state religion.

The minister, in a written parliamentary reply, said that Malaysia is not a secular state as the country was formed based on the Islamic administration of the Malay Sultanates and that the Malay Sultans were heads of Islam in their respective states.

Ling said that Jamil Khir’s description of the basis for Malaysia’s formation was wrong as it referred to the formation of Malaya in 1957 and not Malaysia under the Malaysia Agreement six years later.

The motion demands that Jamil Khir retract his statement on the formation of Malaysia and “correct” the federal government’s position to state that Malaysia is a secular state based on the Malaysia Agreement.