PM Najib challenged to change constitution to turn Malaysia into Islamic state

Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim today challenged the government and PAS to set in motion amendments to the Federal Constitution if they want to achieve an Islamic state.

He said the government should be bold and state this to be its goal, if this is the case, instead of hiding behind amendments to the Syariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355).

"Tell the people your grand plan; and if you want Islam a la Taliban, then let the Islamised criminal law of the land apply to everyone.

"Equality before the law, after all, is a central tenet of our nation enshrined in Article 8 of the Federal Constitution," he said in a blog posting.

He said this should also be in the TN50 blueprint Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is trying to formulate and the BN election manifesto.

Zaid also challenged former chief justice, Abdul Hamid Mohamad, to support such constitutional amendment, following Abdul Hamid's assertion that the government could
impose hudud like punishments on all Malaysians by amending the Penal Code with a simple majority in Parliament.

"In other words, he was telling non-Muslims to count their blessings and not oppose the Act 355 amendment. If they were to oppose it, the Prime Minister could simply amend the Penal Code and introduce hudud for everyone," Zaid said.

Zaid said it is unconstitutional to do so because the Supreme Court had in 1988 declared the Federal Constitution to be a secular one.

To introduce hudud punishments in the Penal Code, the Federal Constitution must be changed to the mould of the Maldives or Saudi Arabia, which states that the country is an Islamic state, he said.

"It is only with these fundamental changes that the prime minister can amend the Penal Code and related legislation so that hudud can be entrenched in this country," Zaid said.

Abdul Hamid had in a blog post last week, said amendments to Act 355 would not affect non-Muslims and will not create double standards in criminal penalties between Muslims and non-Muslims.

He said crimes like murder, rape, theft and robbery, which are included in hudud and qisas (penalties under the Islamic penal code) provisions, are criminal law offences.

According to the Federal Constitution, criminal law is a federal matter, while Syariah courts are a state matter, he said.

However, Abdul Hamid said both Muslims and non-Muslims will be affected if the government uses its simple majority in Parliament to include hudud-like punishments in the Penal Code.

"In other words, in that case, even non-Muslims will be subjected to the punishment (by whatever name you call it) because the offences are criminal law offences, no matter what the punishment is...

"So, if non-Muslims do not want hudud punishment, they should watch what Parliament does, whether it will introduce a Hudud Act, as in Pakistan, or amend the Penal Code to provide for punishments similar to hudud, without even mentioning the word hudud, a Malaysian ingenuity.

"This is what non-Muslims should be afraid of, not an amendment to Act 355. The former is the real “ghost”, not the latter," Abdul Hamid wrote.- Mkini