When Kartika ( below) opened her can of beer for a refreshing brew that ‘reaches the parts other beers cannot reach’, little did she realise the truth of that slogan, and opened a can of worms instead. Her personal choice was classified a state crime and Malaysia courted international condemnation.

The authorities must be satisfied they wrecked a young lady’s life, destroyed her marriage, separated a father from his children, and shamed her immediate family and community. They placed a financial burden on a father to support his adult daughter and invited media intrusion, plus the ire of international watchdogs and feminists.

NONE And if that is insufficient, the erratic way of dispensing justice, the lack of a proper method of administering punishment and the ill formulated syariah laws, have now put the Sultan of Pahang into an invidious position.

Kartika’s father has voiced his disgust at how his daughter has not been given any written notification of the legal proceedings. Her life is in limbo and she is in the dark about the next step of the legal process. Basically, her syariah administrators have been caught on the hop.

This young mother did not challenge the ruling. She consumed alcohol but readily admitted her mistake. She accepted the court’s verdict but made a small request that her whipping be conducted in public. Her hope was that other misguided souls were entreated to learn from her.

She was more magnanimous in gesture, than can be said of her syariah tormentors. First, she was declined from the prison where she was to be whipped, because she had set a legal precedent. Then, her sentence was deferred till after Ramadan. Six months later, no sign of a resolution exists. Her actions have seemingly paralysed even those leaders with the authority to help. Ironically, when she strongly adhered to her principles, she exposed their weaknesses.

Islam is a religion of tolerance; but this example has proven the reverse. Kartika has succeeded in unmasking the shambolic state of Malaysian syariah justice.

Within the syariah context, there is no standardisation throughout the land. Known flaws and inconsistencies still prevail. Some will maintain that syariah is selective. It is the small man in the street, unlike the politicians or high-profile personalities, who are targeted. One law for the common man and another for the elite.

Economic Suicide

There is much to lose if alcohol prohibition was taken in its entirety. Malays/Muslims would be barred from jobs and involvement in the brewing and associated industries. Sponsorships by brewing giants will cease, and major games events would suffer as Malay/Muslim sportspeople are unable to participate. The hospitality and tourism industries, even airlines would be represented by only non-Malay/Muslim Malaysians.

stadium merdeka 041208 03 Banning alcohol from these locations is economic suicide. Even vacationing Muslim Arabs come to our shores to partake in a little alcohol. Maybe we should redirect them to neighbouring countries. And even the treasury would have a tough time balancing their books if the revenue from alcohol duty was excluded.

So now, everyone awaits the next decision. It is a ‘lose-lose’ situation. If the syariah courts decide not to whip Kartika, then she would have won a resounding moral victory. The fundamentalists will cry foul and be baying for blood.

Alternatively, if she is whipped, the whole country, from the Prime Minister, a Pahang-boy, downwards will be seen as presiding over an extremist nation. Malaysia, a so-called tolerant place, and Islam a religion of compassion, will be dissected and bashed, yet again.

Similarly if she was given a royal pardon, there will be certain factions in our community who will stir sentiment.

Damaging Implications

The implications either way are damaging. We’re not talking about an S&M spectacle. We’re referring to a nation’s reputation, tourist dollars, and foreign investment.

But why should Kartika appeal? If she is prepared to receive her sentence, then the authorities should be man enough to carry it out. When she did not play ball and follow the script strictly, it threw the authorities. Thus, Kartika goes through mental torture whilst they take their sweet time prevaricating. Do they hope that inactivity will somehow make the problem vanish?

Some feel Kartika is cashing in on this by writing her book. Well, good for her and so she should! I will be first in the queue for the hardback. Her life has been destroyed so why shouldn’t she benefit? Her chances of returning to paid employment and studying in Singapore are scuppered.

Islam promotes marriage and instead of encouraging harmonious relationships in marriage and the family. Pahang’s syariah law has inadvertently broken a marriage and the trust between individuals.

It is Kartika who has borne all the angst, insecurities, frustrations of her husband and immediate family. Her children, the eldest of whom has special needs, is deprived of the special school he attends in Singapore and which is not readily available in Ipoh. The syariah system has again failed several people. A person of lesser moral fibre and without strong family support would have crumpled by now, or worse still, taken their own lives.

Sometimes, I wonder if the authorities came down hard on her because she was too vocal in her protests when she was arrested. I’ve received similar treatment from officialdom where men in a power-hungry-bureaucratic-craze feel their might challenged by women, especially Malay women, whom they prefer to be silent and demure: like the Victorian attitude towards children, to be seen but not heard.

Feisty Malay women do not meet the expectations of some Malay men. Assertive Malay women, especially beer-guzzling ones, are an abrupt departure from the norm and provide an interesting challenge to some individuals. She was possibly singled out for punishment and re-education. But the master plan, if one existed, backfired.

The brew Kartika consumed reached more parts than was thought possible. It stretched into our personal liberties, touched on hypocrisies in our two-track justice system and in her case, showed that syariah justice can be dispensed and administered with extreme prejudice.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real–speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.