Opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin has called on all stakeholders, regardless of politics, to discuss a constitutional amendment to empower the syariah legal system.
He said this was most needed to uphold the right to profess and practise Islam guaranteed in the Federal Constitution for the Malaysian majority which is the Malays.
“When viewed carefully and as a step forward, there is a need for an amendment in the Federal Constitution to empower syariah law, especially on the right to profess and practise of the majority of people guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.
"We call on all stakeholders to sit at the same table regardless of political boundaries to make this wish come true,” Hamzah (above) said in a statement on Facebook.
The Larut MP was referring to the Federal Court's decision allowing a petition by lawyer Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter Tengku Yasmin Natasha Tengku Abdul Rahman to nullify 18 Kelantan syariah criminal provisions this morning.
Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat ruled that Kelantan's legislature exceeded its state-making power contained in the State List (List II) of the Ninth Schedule of the Federal Constitution.
Hamzah claimed that the decision would challenge the syariah criminal enactment in all states, exposing them to the risk of annulment.
It could also invite consequences such as the erosion of the power and jurisdiction of the Malay rulers, he added.
"At the same time, I would like to remind all Malaysians that there were the ‘Wills of the Malay rulers’ during the formation of the Federation of Malaya which, among other things, bequeathed: 'We declare Islam to be the official religion of the Federation' and 'We entrust and we hold accountable to the Malay rulers for protecting the special position of Malays’,” he said.
The “Wills of the Malay rulers” was invoked by the royal rulers on Aug 5, 1957. The seven wills touch on issues such as the sovereignty of the Malay rulers, Malay as the national language, Islam as the official religion of the federation, and protecting the special position of the Malays and the legitimate interests of the other communities.
Memorandum to king
Hamzah intends to hand over a memorandum to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Selangor sultan regarding the Nik Elin case soon.
It will contain the thoughts of the people on the matter as well as steps that can be taken to empower the Islamic legal system, he added.
In her ruling today, Tengku Maimun issued the reminder that what the family was challenging was not the position of Islam and the syariah judicial system, but rather the constitutional validity of the specific 18 provisions of the state which the petitioners contended breached the limit of state-making power.
Among the invalidated provisions are destroying a place of worship (Section 11), sodomy (Section 14), necrophiliac sexual intercourse (Section 16), bestiality (Section 17), and sexual harassment (Section 31).
Other struck down controversial Kelantan syariah criminal offences are possessing false documents and giving false information (Section 34), intoxication (Section 36), reducing scale measurement (Section 39), transactions that go against hukum syarak (Section 40), carrying out transactions involving usury (Section 41), and abuse of halal label (Section 42).
The remainder of subject matters criminalised under religious law by the state legislature are offering or providing vice service (Section 43), preparing to offer or provide vice service (Section 44), preparing to indulge in vice (Section 45), incest (Section 47), and muncikari or person acting as an intermediary between two people for certain offences (Section 48).
The provisions the Federal Court did not allow in the duo’s bid to nullify are giving away a child to a non-Muslim or morally corrupt Muslim (Section 13), and words that break the peace (Section 30). - Mkini
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