Proposed Act 355 amendment not backdoor way to implement hudud — Hadi

KUALA LUMPUR: T he amendment proposal in the Sya r iah Cour t ( Cr imina l Jurisdiction) (Amendment) 2016 (RUU 355) Private Member’s Bill is not a back-door route to implement hudud.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said the implementat ion of the law which resembled hudud in Syariah was a difficult process because it required at least three amendments into several parts in the federal constitution.

“It (the three amendment) is a difficult thing to do,” he said when tabling the motion on the Syariah Court ( Criminal Jurisdiction) 1965 (Amendment 2016)( RUU 355) in Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Abdul Hadi stressed the motion on amending Act 355 too was only applicable to Muslims in the country and not to non-Muslims.

According to Abdul Hadi, history had also proven that since the act was approved 52 years ago, no non-Muslim had been charged for Syariah offences under the main act.

He said the power of the Syariah Court using Act 355 was still low compared to the authority of a Class One Magistrate’s Court which normally could try cases punishable up to 10 years, and could mete out up to five years jail or RM10,000 fi ne or 12 strokes or their combinations.

The power of the Shariah Court too, he said was left far behind compared to the Civil Court, whereby, for example, for offences under the Wildlife Act, those guilty could be fi ned up to RM50,000.

“Whilst the Syariah Court, such as teaching deviationist teachers who succeeded in deviating from the Islamic faiths or make Muslim apostates, if guilty could only be fi ned RM5,000. Is that the price of the faith of a Muslim?

“Are we prepared to allow Allah’s law, be stationed so low in our country, which provided the Islamic religion as a national religion under Article 3(1) of the federal constitution,” he said.

As soon as Abdul Hadi completed tabling the motion, Kota Bharu member of Parliament Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan unravelled further that the amendment to Act 355 had nothing to do with hudud.

Takiyuddin, who is also PAS secretary-general, said although the amendment also involved the punishment of 100 lashes the punishment was provided in the Quran.

“Although, it is based on Islam, it is not hudud because hudud has its own features, but even it is hudud, it has nothing to do with non- Muslims such as the Syariah Criminal Code (II) 1993 in Kelantan which is not applicable against non-Muslims,” he said.

Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia then summarised that the motion would be debated and decided at the coming Dewan Rakyat session.

“I understand RUU355 prior to this was vague because I have obtained many leaflets and opinions. After listening to the arguments of the Marang Member of Parliament and the supporting arguments of the Kota Bharu Member of Parliament, I am truly enlightened of the history,” he said.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said then stood up to propose for the meeting to be adjourned to an undecided date.

The meeting was adjourned with the support of the majority of elected representatives.