Pushing for ‘God’s law’

The PAS plan to implement hudud law in Kelantan is going full steam ahead despite opposition from its political partners and critics outside the state.

Joceline Tan, The Star

IT has been described as the PAS “highway to heaven”.

Or, at least, that is how journalists in Kota Baru refer to the Islamist party’s plan to implement hudud law in Kelantan.

It is PAS’ most ambitious policy since coming to power in 1990. Hudud law was one of its election promises and it is about to become a reality for the party after 23 years in power.

It has also become the party’s most controversial move in years.

The PAS “highway to heaven” will see the party driving into uncharted territory. But PAS leaders are undaunted because they believe they are ready to implement it. Moreover, they say it is wajib or obligatory on them as Muslims to do it.

Up till early this year, many people especially PAS’ partners in Pakatan Rakyat did not believe that the party was serious about it. They thought it was the Kelantan government’s usual “all talk and little action”.

But it has finally sunk in and the only question is whether PAS can get the support in Parliament to pass two Private Members’ Bills that are needed for the law to be applied.

PAS leaders seem confident that the Muslim MPs will do their religious duty. There are 130 Muslim MPs from both sides of the divide and the bills only require a simple majority of 112 votes.

Umno MPs from Kelantan, including International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, have indicated support for the Bills.

“PAS has been talking about hudud since 1990, they blamed us for blocking them. Let them go ahead,” said Kok Lanas assemblyman Datuk Alwi Che Ahmad.

But Minister for Parliament Affairs Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said the Muslim MPs in Barisan Nasional are still waiting for more information.

“We will take the cue from the Prime Minister. Many Muslim MPs feel that hudud is only applicable when the nation is prosperous and at peace and when the people genuinely understand what it is all about,” said Shahidan who is known as “the governor” among Barisan MPs.

No one from PAS is willing to say when the Bills will reach Parliament.

PAS MP for Kota Baru Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan, who is looking into the implementation issues of the law, said the Bills are “90% ready” to be tabled.

The first Bill is to provide wider powers to syariah court judges to decide on punishment under the Syariah Penal Code. The second Bill is to enable federal authorities like the police and the prisons department, to enforce hudud.

Alwi had needled Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob during a state assembly sitting about the issue, causing the usually placid politician to jump to his feet and pledge: “I will make sure I implement it by 2015.”

Ahmad has also famously declared that he will resign if he fails. That is how serious he is about the whole thing.

Despite all the noise from outside Kelantan, there is no denying that the average Kelantanese has no objection to life under hudud.

Former Election Commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman is one of them. He is from Kelantan and still has a home on the outskirts of Kota Baru.

“I am as keen as the next person. I don’t see why it cannot be done. Hudud has been implemented in Acheh even though it is not done in the rest of Indonesia,” said Abdul Rashid.

But he admits that most Kelantanese do not really know what to expect.

“When I ask them they say that, of course, it must be done. They say they have waited so long. But when I ask what it actually means, they give me that awkward look,” he said.

Kelantan is 95% Muslim and 23 years of uninterrupted PAS rule in Kelantan has been a sort of psychological preparation for this.

PAS leaders have been conditioning the people towards an Islamic state from Day One. This is a party that promises their supporters a place in heaven.

In the general election, they said God instructed them to take over Putrajaya from Barisan. Then again, this is the same party where a local Kelantan politician had said that the dengue problem in the state was because Umno opposes hudud.

Dress code

Shortly after coming to power, PAS declared Kelantan to be the serambi Mecca or the verandah to Islam’s holiest city and issued a circular defining the state secretariat complex as Zon Tutup Aurat, where women and men have to observe the Islamic dress code.

Practices like gender segregation at hair salons and check-out counters in supermarkets have become the norm. Only women wearing the tudung can be featured on advertising billboards even if they are advertising shampoo.

Since September, the authorities have been enforcing the Islamic dress code on proprietors and employees of commercial outlets. It is aimed mainly at women who are obliged to wear loose and long attire and their tudung have to cover their bosoms.

Even the Kelantan sovereign Sultan Muhammad V sometimes appears at religious events wearing a simple short-sleeved jubah and sandals.

Recently, the state caused a stir when it barred men from any sports events involving women. As a result, the state netball championship became the first “strictly women only” event. Their sports attire had to cover their aurat (only the face, hands and feet were exposed), it could not show their body shape and all play had to stop for prayers.

The last cinema in Kelantan closed down more than a decade ago. Plans for a cineplex in the modern KB Mall in the centre of town were scrapped earlier this year. No reason was given but there was no fuss because people have grown used to life without movies.

This is a state where the streets go all quiet and deserted during maghrib. The prayer period for maghrib is very brief and all shops will shut down so that everyone can pray.

All activities come to a standstill during Friday prayers. Recently, there were reports that those who missed Friday prayers three times in a row would face fines. The same ruling also exists in states like Kedah and Terengganu but Kelantan means to put it into effect.

“Every MB wants to stamp his religious mark. Remember how Tok Guru Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said that women should not use lipstick and that beautiful women should not work?” said Alwi.

Or as Abdul Rashid put it: “I can see why they want to go the hudud way. I really would like to know their secret, how they continue to win even though they don’t have much to show after so many years in power.”

Whatever people outside of Kelantan may think or say, the fact is that the Kelantanese have been slowly but surely inching towards an Islamic state.

The implementation of hudud law has been Nik Aziz’s life-long dream. He would have been able to pull it off given his wisdom and the respect he enjoyed among Kelantanese during his 22 years as Mentri Besar. But his pious dream got entangled with political expediency and he regrets it.

The frail and elderly man now says that he wants to see hudud law in Kelantan before he dies.

Umno’s Alwi said all Muslims accept hudud because it is God’s law but it is the implementation that he is concerned about.

For instance, the sensational gang-rape case where more than 10 men had allegedly raped two women a total of 38 times happened in Alwi’s constituency. Statutory rape cases in Kelantan are among the highest in the country.

Sceptics are unsure whether complex crimes that involve DNA evidence or forensic profiling can be tackled under hudud law.

“They want to try it out. They say they are building the highway to heaven, but are there enough qualified drivers on the highway?” asked a Kota Baru-based journalist.

The beautiful thing about PAS politicians is their infinite belief that their religion can solve all the problems in life. The less beautiful part is that they think they are always right.

There will be more controversies surrounding hudud law in the days ahead. The local media in Kota Baru, who have watched videos where convicted criminals in Middle-Eastern states are caned and stoned, have been pressing PAS politicians about where Kelantan’s “flogging square” will be located. But that is something which the PAS leaders are not keen to comment on for now.

Religion propelled PAS to power in Kelantan and the party is once again relying on religion to stay in power.