`


THERE IS NO GOD EXCEPT ALLAH
read:
MALAYSIA Tanah Tumpah Darahku

LOVE MALAYSIA!!!


 


Saturday, August 4, 2012

Why is MCA so EXCITED over hudud & Islamic state?


Why is MCA so EXCITED over hudud & Islamic state?
If not between Dap and Pas, Karpal Singh vs Nik Aziz for example, it’s a constant slanging match between Dap and MCA. Hudud and the Islamic state are hogging the limelight again for all the wrong reasons.
MCA is perhaps terrified that in the event of hudud being implemented in the country, the first people to have their limbs chopped off at the extremities would be Umno leaders, their comrades in crime, who are leading the way in stealing from the Public Treasury under the guise of bringing development to the people.
They can rest easy.
The fact is that hudud and the Islamic state are non-starters in Malaysia. The Constitution would not allow something that goes against its very fabric. One noteworthy precedent in the Free World comes from the state of Kansas in the United States which recently outlawed the Syariah on the grounds that it’s against the Constitution.
Kansas is not a novel development in law. It’s merely stating the obvious.
Hudud and the Islamic state are unconstitutional
The Syariah, already an inferior law like Native law vis a vis the secular Constitution, doesn’t have a leg to stand on as it advocates dispensing a form of justice separate from that applied in the mainstream. On that score alone, the Syariah is unconstitutional in Malaysia as in Kansas or anywhere else for that matter where secular law reigns.
Likewise, it can be argued in Malaysia that both hudud and the Islamic state are unconstitutional and those advocating them can be charged with sedition, if not treason. They deserve to be shot, hung, fried and fed to the wolves and this could be read as a mild understatement.
The reality check is that Pas does not have a divine monopoly on hudud and the Islamic state although that would definitely not stop them from flogging the issues until thy kingdom come for reasons of political expediency. The Dap would do better to call Pas’ bluff on hudud and the Islamic state instead of swearing by Karpal’s infamous line: “An Islamic state in Malaysia over my dead body!”
Islamic matters solely within purview of Sultans
Islamic matters in Malaysia are not decided over anyone’s dead body or by the Federal Government for that matter but fall solely within the purview of the Sultans and overall the Conference of Rulers which has oversight functions. That has not deterred the Federal Government from muscling in on Islamic affairs, for political reasons, even to the extent of appointing a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department to be in charge of Islamic Affairs, setting up a National Fatwa Council and monopolizing the haj traffic.
In additional, the perennial mutterings and utterings from Federal Ministers on matters Islamic is enough to make any self-respecting Ayatollah or mad mullah cringe in embarrassment, if not shame. Such ministers seem determined to outdo the ravings and rantings of the Ayatollahs and any mad mullahs in tow. They probably had one too many for the road.
If push comes to shove, the Sultans are likely to summon up enough guts to turn around one of these days to tell the Federal Government and Pas to butt out from Islamic matters. A Sultan ceases to be a Sultan if he does not preside over Islamic matters. They should not let their other role of being the head of state interfere with their primary function or alternatively they should surrender the former role to a Governor like in Penang, Malacca, Sabah and Sarawak.
States should banish those preaching politics in mosques
It has been mentioned by Islamists that the Federal Constitution can be amended to accommodate hudud and the Islamic state. Again, if the Sultans have their thinking caps on, they would not hesitate to banish from their states those who constantly harp on Islam for political reasons or turn the mosques into an arena for political conflict.
The bottomline is that the Federal Constitution on the one hand and hudud/Islamic state on the other hand are like oil and water. They do not go together. So, no one should harbour notions that a hybrid of sorts can emerge if the Islamists harp long and hard enough on hudud and the Islamic state and politicize it for all it’s worth.
The argument can stop at this juncture on constitutional grounds but just for the sake of polemics, the Islamists need to remind themselves that Sabah and Sarawak did not elect Malaysia to be an Islamic state where the hudud reigns in terror.
Hudud, Islam state contrary to Malaysia Agreement
Hudud and Islamic state are contrary to the five constitutional documents and/or constitutional conventions which formed the basis for Sabah and Sarawak to be in Malaysia. These are the 1963 Malaysia Agreement, the 20/18 Points, the Inter Governmental Committee Report, the Cobbold Commission Report and the words etched in stone on Batu Sumpah in Keningau.
Of course, we can always partition the country into Islamic and secular states as witnessed in the Indian sub-continent where Pakistan and Bangladesh elected to be Islamic while the rest of the Indian sub-continent remained secular. In Malaysia’s case, the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia can be secular and the east coast Islamic. Sabah and Sarawak can leave Malaysia to remain separate secular states.
The moral of the story meanwhile is clear. Non-Muslims can call MCA’s bluff on hudud and Islamic state and happily vote for Pas without even batting an eyelid. Pas will continue to bark but it can never acquire the ability to bite.
MCA and MIC are better off trying to re-invent themselves instead of continuing to play the role ordained them by the departing colonial British: “protect the ruling Malay elite – as the British did -- from themselves”. This has only meant the Indian and Chinese elite looking after themselves by buying political protection and forgetting the community in the process.
MCA cannot turn voters away from Dap and Pas
MCA and MIC’s dilemma is that the Umno elite have refused to be protected from themselves since 13 May 1969 and have been running amok for quite sometime.
The MCA harping on hudud and Islamic state is not going to make people forget the party’s abysmal failure to protect the nation, make them come back in droves or turn them away from Dap and Pas.
Pas betrays itself as a one issue party if it continues to flog the dead horse of hudud and Islamic state. It needs to seriously consider joining the 21st century and the human race. At present, Pas only attracts non-Muslim votes which are protesting against Umno and the Barisan Nasional, and not because they love the party.
No so long ago, Pas was flogging a Welfare State, a long discredited concept in the rest of the world especially in the United Kingdom and the former Socialist bloc countries.
Having failed to elicit interest in its Welfare State, Pas has fallen into its bad old habits and continues to flog hudud and the Islamic state, thus annoying Dap and Karpal Singh in the process, especially when MCA enters the picture to provoke Lim Guan Eng into saying or doing something stupid on the issue.
Malaysia Chronicle

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.