Hudud has no chance of being tabled in Parliament – Richard Teo

It is indeed shocking to know that “without PKR, PAS can still push through hudud bill.”

Even without any basic legal knowledge, a novice in law can see through such a fallacious statement. It is rather unfortunate that any political analyst without knowledge of the legal ramification should make such a sweeping statement, which would only be trying to mislead the public at large.

Our founding fathers have framed our constituition a secular one, and any attempt to thwart that constituition by replacing it with a theocratic Islamic one contravenes the Federal Constituition.

Neither did our founding fathers envisage a parallel law system with one for Muslims and another for non-muslims. This would undoubtedly create a discriminatory penal system whereby separate punishment would be meted for the same offence.

It is elementary knowledge that any state laws which are in contravention of the Federal Constitution, would not see the light of day in Parliament .Therefore, it would only be an act of futility, if PAS chooses to submit a notice to table a private member's bill in the current session of Parliament, to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965.

The speaker in Parliament has no option but to reject the submission of such a private's member bill, for the simple reason that any bill submitted that contravenes the Federal Constitution, would not be debated in Parliament.

* Richard Teo reads The Malaysian Insider.