Supremacy of the Federal Constitution

By admin-s On Jan 21, 2015

The attitude and actions of the religious authorities over the past decade have shown all too clearly why the Shariah system in Malaysia is where it is in our Federal Constitution.

Azrul Mohd Khalib, MMO

The indignant tone that recently came out of Jakim’s Director General Datuk Othman Mustapha, who denounced the questioning of religious authorities as being part of a liberalism movement, is representative of the larger problem we have with the government religious institutions in this country.

They feel that they are above criticism. That they can do no wrong and are infallible. That to criticise them is to question Islam.

Yet, the attitude and actions of the religious authorities over the past decade have shown all too clearly why the Shariah system in Malaysia is where it is in our Federal Constitution.

There is an actual risk of abuse and misuse of power. It is not abstract or theoretical. It is very real. Ask Nik Raina of Borders.

The Nik Raina-Borders case is one situation where all too human ego and pride got in the way of justice, fairness and righteousness. It demonstrates in very real terms why it is necessary for us to provide a check and balance on those who perceive and have anointed themselves as God’s enforcers of law and judgement here on the temporal plane. Why we must hold them to the higher moral and virtuous standard which they lay claim to.

For more than two and a half years, the Jabatan Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan (Jawi) have wasted time and taxpayers’ money chasing the prosecution of Nik Raina Nik Abdul Aziz, an employee of the Borders bookstore.

It has also cost Nik Raina years of her life which have been under the shadow of an erroneous and unjust charge.

During the appeal hearing back in August last year, Justice Datuk Umi Kathom Abdul Majid had stated: “Remember the basic principle of law, that you cannot commit a crime before knowing it is against the law.”

This was not an issue of ignorance of the law but the authorities had yet to even declare illegal on May 23, 2012 that which Nik Raina was charged with: distributing or selling a banned book. The book in question was only effectively banned by the Home Ministry three weeks later.

The observations contained within the March 2013 High Court judgement stated that Jawi’s actions have been an infringement of Article 7 of the Federal Constitution which protects against making offences retrospective. A point which Jawi seems to not understand or refuses to comply with. They went ahead and appealed the outcome leading to similar admonishments and incredulous observations from the panel of Justices in the Court of Appeal. Justice Datuk Umi Kathom went as far as to remind Shariah enforcement officers that they can’t besyiok sendiri in enforcing laws.

Two Malay proverbs come to mind: menegak benang yang basah and bodoh sombong. Also, I am tempted to ask, “Apa lagi Jawi mau?”