By Ahmad Ali Karim, Tanjak
The amendment of RUU355 proposed by PAS president Hadi Awang has been vocally criticized not only by leaders of DAP and PKR but also by the opposition’s Malay parties, PAN and PPBM.
RUU355 is a shorthand referring to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 proposed amendments.
Most of the anti-355 criticisms are peppered with wild accusations intended to divide the people, and especially to get the non-Muslims against it.
Many argued that the amendments will lead to inequality due to the two-courts system for the Muslims as well as other fictional reasons that they are able to fabricate to achieve their divisive agenda.
Some even said that RUU355 is equivalent to Hudud Bill and more ludicrously that it will affect non-Muslims as well.
Meanwhile there are others – including Tun Mahathir Mohamad – who maintain that the law, if passed, will discriminate against the Muslim. This is because hudud punishment will allow the court to chop off the hand of a Muslim thief whereas the non-Muslim thief will only be sent to jail.
It is hard to imagine how the hunger for political power has caused some Malays to join others in debasing and humiliating Islam.
Delusional to insist M’sia is secular
The most popular reason given by detractors of RUU355 is that Malaysia is a secular country and therefore the implementation of syariah law is unconstitutional.
These delusional people are clueless about the laws of the country and are constitutionally illiterate for them to actually believe their own lies.
I have answered some of the above false accusations in my own previous blog posts; for me those accusations were deliberately concocted to confuse the people, especially RUU355’s Muslim supporters in order for these opposition politicians to gain support for their agendas.
One of them, Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli, last week released the result of his latest ‘research’ purportedly showing 70 percent of Malay voters know nothing about Act 355.
The survey was conducted by Invoke Centre For Policy Initiative (I-CPI) and polled 43,030 Malay respondents.
On Friday (March 23), Free Malaysia Today ran with the sensational story, ‘Survey: 70% Malay voters do not know about shariah bill’. FMT‘s twisted headline alone is enough to attract the much craved attention.
Sizeable number of Malays not leaning either way on RUU355
In his press conference, Rafizi claimed that out of the 29.9% of the Malay voters who know something about the proposed amendment of RUU355, the breakdown is as follows:
- 44.4% think that the issue is important in deciding who they’ll be voting for in the coming general election
- 25.2% think that the issue is not important in making their decision
- 30.4% did not answer
Rafizi also claims that out of the 29.9% of the Malay voters who are aware of this issue:
- 34.9% think that RUU355 is the most important factor in deciding who they’ll be voting for in the coming general election
- 27.1% think that the economy affecting the people’s welfare is a more important factor
- 38.0% did not answer which of the above elements is more important to them
The I-CPI study also found that only 54.3% of the PAS voters know about the RUU355 proposed amendments while 45.7% had no idea about it.
I did my own calculation using the figures given by Rafizi, and if they are true, then only fifteen percent (14.86%) of the Muslim voters who took part in his survey know about RUU355.
Anthony Loke nafi pernah sokong hudud fb.me/2L1wX2RCZ
Gap between Malay indifference and Chinese engagement
Only one-and-a-half Malay out of 10 apparently think that RUU355 is the most important issue in deciding who they’ll be voting for in the coming general election.
Now, what is Rafizi trying to prove by announcing his ‘research’ finding?
Is Rafizi trying to prove that opposing the proposed amendment will not affect the Malay votes even though it is a national issue?
The way he presents it, it is as if the ‘research’ is to prove that the amendment is not an important issue to the Malay voters because only 14.86% think that it is important while the 85.14% are not even bothered about it.
His intention is clearly only to undermine the Malays by implying that 70.1% of the Malay voters are clueless people, for they know nothing about a national issue that is important to them.
Yet at the same time, the non-Muslims who have nothing to do with this law are not only aware but they’re fighting most vocally against it.
Why is PKR downplaying Malay support for upholding Islam?
Based on the purported I-CPI survey findings, my questions are:
1. Is Rafizi trying to paint a picture that the Malays are no longer bothered about upholding Islam?
2. Is Rafizi trying to play down the support of the Malays on this issue?
3. Is Rafizi trying to justify his party’s stance on this issue?
4. Is Rafizi trying to give the impression to the MPs that since the Muslim community is not even bothered about this, thus it is okay for them to oppose the proposed amendment of the act in Parliament?
5. Is this a way to lobby the Barisan MPs to join the Pakatan bandwagon in fighting against the rights of Muslims in professing our religion?
Honestly, it is very hard for me to believe the findings of a ‘research’ done by any organization that has anything to do with the Member of Parliament for Pandan.
It is more likely to be just another narrative concocted by Rafizi to serve his political agenda. After all, he did say that “tugas kita ialah menghasut” as recorded in the video.
But if this is true, as a Muslim leader, Rafizi must do something about it for the sake of Islam unless his actual intention is merely to besmear the Muslims who support RUU355.
If so, Malay voters should be very careful in choosing their leaders. They should not to be blinded by those who adhere to the ideology of liberalism and the concept of “personal sins”, i.e. that immoral behaviour is supposedly confined only to the individual and does not impact on society at large.
These too laidback Malaysians should understand that Islam is not only a personal matter but a complete way of life.
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