Give fair treatment to PAS, people of Kelantan, says Hassan

 

PKR’s Pasir Gudang MP, Hassan Karim, said the PAS Kelantan government is not ‘amateurish’ and had legal advisers experienced in constitutional law.

PETALING JAYA: A PKR MP has called for society to be fair to the PAS government in Kelantan and the people of the state who want the “Islamic message” to be upheld through the implementation of the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Offences (I) Enactment 2019.

Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim said three aspects need to be considered: politics, history, and the cultural context of the state which PAS has governed for more than 33 years, since 1990.

Hassan said plans for the enactment, which was approved by the state assembly and received the Kelantan sultan’s consent, were likely to have been carefully put in place.

The PAS government is not “amateurish”, he said, and had legal advisers experienced in constitutional law.

“Why did the menteri besar of Kelantan, PAS assemblymen and its legal advisers insist on proceeding with the enactment when they were aware of the risks involved?

“The answer lies in the political, historical, and cultural factors of the Kelantanese people, which differ from those of the other states in the Federation of Malaysia,” he said in a Facebook post.

According to Hassan, more than 90% of the Kelantanese are Muslims and have chosen PAS to implement shariah law via the democratic process. The enactment is a manifestation of their will, he said.

“While we agree with and respect the Federal Constitution and the decisions of the Federal Court, I, an MP from PKR whose politics support multi-ethnic and multi-religious policies, urge everyone to be fair to the PAS government and the entire Kelantanese people, who want the Islamic message to be upheld.

“This is a choice made by its people at elections. In this regard, the word ‘conscience’, as once said by Mahatma Gandhi, is relevant,” he said.

Last Friday, the Federal Court, chaired by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, invalidated 16 provisions in the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Offences (I) Enactment 2019 on the grounds that they violated the Federal Constitution.

In 8-1 majority decision, the apex court ruled that the state legislative assembly had no authority to pass those provisions into law.

The petition was brought by lawyer Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter, Tengku Yasmin Nastasha Tengku Abdul Rahman. - FMT