PKR low-key on hudud for fear of Muslim sentiments
PKR vice-president Sivarasa defends party’s stand, says hudud not on Pakatan agenda
(Free Malaysia Today) – Parti Keadlian Rakyat’s low-key stand on hudud, which is championed by its Pakatan Rakyat partner PAS, stems from fear of hurting the sentiments of its Muslim members and supporters, a party official has said.
PKR vice-president Sivarasa Rasiah said that as PKR was a multi-racial party with members from all ethnic and religious backgrounds, it had to be cautious when expressing its stand publicly.
“PKR cannot say it is against hudud because it might hurt the feelings of its Muslim brothers and sisters,” he told a public forum last night on “The Scenario After Anwar’s Imprisonment”.
He pointed out that hudud, the Islamic penal code, was not on the Pakatan coalition’s common agenda, and accused PAS of not honouring the pact among the three coalition partners.
“A group in PAS is pushing the hudud agenda,” he said. “This was never a Pakatan agenda.” PAS is insistent on amending the law, through enabling legislation in Parliament, in order to include hudud as part of Kelantan’s syariah law.
He said the Pakatan coalition could not deny the individual parties their rights to uphold their respective aspirations.
Sivarasa reminded the DAP, which is resolutely opposed to implementation of hudud, that Islamic criminal law could not be imposed on non-Muslims. However, he said that implementation of hudud, in a multi-religious Malaysia, would have an impact on non-Muslims as well, and create problems in the legal process as Islamic law treat Muslim witnesses and non-Muslim witnesses differently.
