Stop Bill from progressing further, BN leaders urge

PETALING JAYA: Barisan Nasional component party leaders want all necessary action taken to stop the hudud amendment Bill from progressing further in Parliament.

SUPP president Senator Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian said the party would never have stood for the Bill when Sarawak agreed to form Malaysia as part of a “secular Government” with “secular laws”.

“All signatories to the Malaysia Agreement 1963 agreed that this Federation shall be secular,” Dr Sim said in a statement yesterday.

He said that SUPP, as a member of Barisan, would insist that the “fundamental spirit and principles” of the Agreement be safeguarded.

Dr Sim said any possible passing of the Bill would only motivate the “people of Sarawak to move towards parting of ways with Malaysia as they will see that this Federation is going to be far from the secular Federation our forefathers agreed to in 1963.”

Dr Sim, whose father was one of the most senior and earliest Chinese deputy chief ministers in Sarawak, urged the Federal Government to take “all actions necessary to prevent such a Bill” from being passed.

Gerakan president Datuk Seri Mah Siew Kong said the Constitution must be accepted and appreciated in its totality: “We cannot choose to follow the parts we like and ignore the parts we do not like.”

The party, he added, was against PAS’ Private Member’s Bill relating to hudud as it contravened the Federal Constitution.

Among other concerns, Mah said the Bill sought to give absolute power to the Syariah Criminal Court to sentence Muslims, not only on crimes against the precepts of Islam but also against state laws that impose “punitive measures in line with Islamic doctrine”.

“Such unfettered sentencing powers bestowed on the Syariah Criminal Court are against the laws of natural justice as all laws must have limits,” he said.

On May 7 last year, the Kota Baru High Court dismissed a suit brought by Gerakan against the PAS-led Kelantan government over amendments to the Syariah Criminal Code II 1993.

Justice Azman Abdulah, in his 18-page written judgement, said the plaintiff had put the “cart before the horse”, ruling that the plaintiff had prematurely filed the originating summons in seeking to declare the amendments to the 1993 Code as illegal. He also ordered RM10,000 in costs.

MIC president Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam said the party “vehemently opposes the passing of this Bill as it is of the view that the proposed Bill will result in a parallel criminal justice system where Muslims and non-Muslims are subjected to unequal treatment before the law.”

He added that the cornerstone of the Federal Constitution was never constructed for a dual criminal justice system.

He stressed that there should not be any room for “replication of the offences within any Federal law with a separate degree of punishment only for Muslims”.

In KOTA KINABALU, Upko information chief Albert Bingkasan said the party’s stand has never wavered.

“We have since last year stated that we will not support a hudud Bill and there is no change to this stand,” he said.