Tun M: PAS' hudud is just to fish for votes

CYBERJAYA: Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) has criticised PAS’ implementation of the hudud law in Kelantan, calling it “unIslamic” and used only to fish for votes.

He explained that the Islamic hudud promotes justice and the hudud law that is proposed by PAS excludes the non-Muslims from punishment and therefore is not just.

“In the quran there are 43 verses that say that when you judge, you must judge with justice. But under PAS’ hudud, it only applies to Muslims. If a Muslim and a non-Muslim were caught for robbery, the Muslim will get his hand chopped off while the non-Muslim only goes to jail.

“Tell me how is that fair? If it is not fair, it is not Islamic,” said Dr Mahathir, who was responding to a question fielded by a participant of the “What Youth Should Know” leadership conference here on Saturday.

Dr Mahathir also said PAS’ “niat”, or intention, to implement hudud was not for Islamic reasons but rather political reasons.

“PAS’ niat is not for Islam. It is for winning elections and proving there are more Muslim than Umno. If politics is your ‘niat’ than the hudud they are trying to implement is no longer Islamic.

“Kelantan Umno voted for hudud but they do not even know what they are supporting.

Dr Mahathir said that as a multi-racial country, it is not viable to implement hudud in the country.

“We cannot apply hudud in Malaysia as it is a multi-racial country. But the common law is there to uphold justice. I always believe when you uphold justice, than you are upholding the principles of Islam,” he said.