The letter Hudud laws will protect Muslim community by Jaafar Ali reminded me of my stay in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps the writer failed to ask why a crime is committed in the first place. Hudud laws or any other laws are there to deter but their severity doesn't eliminate crime completely.

It may be comforting to note that crime in hudud law countries such as Saudi Arabia are low. But we must note that national statistics are simply too flawed to be used for comparison among different countries with different methodologies on crime statistics.

A report by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency says that the crime rate among unemployed Saudis rose by 320 percent in a six-year period from 1990 to 1996. Therefore, the solution to rising crime cannot be solved with punitive and deterrent measures if the cause of the crime is due to unemployment and poverty.

In Malaysia, I doubt hudud laws would help reduce crime committed by foreign workers when their act is the result of the injustice (unpaid wages) and the police (extortion and corruption) coupled with poverty.

Many crimes committed are the result of injustice in our society be they economic, political power or opportunity-based. Instead of harping on hudud laws, why not work on social justice in Malaysia for a better future for all, which in turn will help reduce the crime rate?

Of course, we would still need to deal with crimes caused by greed and abuse of power.