Bebas, a movement that upholds equality, wishes to urge you to reject PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill that aims to increase the Shariah punishment ceiling from the current limits of three years’ jail, RM5,000 fine and six strokes of the cane to 30 years’ jail, RM100,000 fine and 100 lashes.

We urge you to vote “No” to Hadi’s bill that seeks to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (Act 355), instead of merely abstaining from voting and skipping Parliament on the day of the vote. Staying silent by refusing to vote will only increase the likelihood of the passage of the bill.

Social justice and equality before the law

As a multi-racial and multi-religious country, we believe that the most important form of social justice is for all Malaysians to be treated equally before the law.

The so-called ‘empowerment’ of the Shariah Court will only exacerbate the unequal treatment of Muslims and non-Muslims before the law.

Malaysia already has a Penal Code that suffices to punish serious crimes, whereas the Shariah Court’s jurisdiction is mainly limited to khalwat cases, cross-dressing, alcohol consumption, extramarital sex and Muslim family law.

Since Shariah legislation is under state jurisdiction, will there be a time when the state legislative assemblies attempt to exert state jurisdiction over crimes like theft, murder and the like?

This will cause chaos and overlapping jurisdictions between the Civil and Shariah Courts and among Muslims and non-Muslims.

Effectiveness of ‘empowerment’ of the Shariah Court

From the start when YB Abdul Hadi Awang first suggested implementing hudud law and when he subsequently changed his stance to “empowering Shariah legislations”, not once has he supported his bill with strong evidence on the effectiveness of his proposed amendments to Act 355. He has merely resorted to empty rhetoric.

As a Member of Parliament and a people’s representative, any proposed change in law or policy should be based on effectiveness evidenced through research or experimental studies by renowned academics, or on whether they have already been implemented in other countries and have resulted in a positive impact on society.

We understand that the original purpose of Hadi’s bill is to reduce the incidences of social crime. However, we want to stress that imposing heavier punishments is not effective at all.

We believe that focusing on punishment alone without attempts for rehabilitation under the current system is ineffective. Increasing punishments will not guarantee a drop in Shariah offences nor in repeat ones.

We suggest that in order to resolve the problem of Shariah offences holistically, Malaysia should look at countries like Norway, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands, where the overall crime rate is so low that they had to close down empty prisons because there were no prisoners. In the Netherlands, they even converted empty prisons to halfway houses for refugees from Syria, Iran and Morocco.

According to a research study by Houssain Askari, an academic from George Washington University titled ‘An Economic Islamicity Index’, Ireland was found to be the most Islamic country in the world out of more than 208 countries surveyed.

The top 10 countries whose policies and achievements reflected Islamic teachings on the economy were Ireland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Sweden, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Singapore, Finland, Norway, and Belgium.

The parametres used were if a country, society, or community showed traits like the absence of elections, the practice of corruption, abuse, unjust administration of the country, injustice in the law, the lack of equal opportunities for human development, the lack of freedom of choice (including religious freedom), the gap between the rich and the poor, force, violence as conflict resolution which is against dialogue and peace.

Most importantly, oppression in whatever form is prima facie proof that a community is not Islamic.

Among the Islamic countries in the world, Malaysia was ranked the top at 33rd, Kuwait second at 48th. Why does Malaysia want to look at failed states like Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe as reference points on how to enforce Shariah punishments?

Abuse of Shariah laws

Abdul Hadi Awang has repeatedly claimed that his proposed amendment to Act 355 will only involve Muslims, but this is not true.

In the case of M Indira Gandhi, a Hindu mother was denied custody of her daughter and not allowed to meet her child except for a few seconds in court, after her husband converted to Islam and converted their children without the knowledge or consent of their mother.

Reevathi Masoosai, a wife and mother who was raised her whole life as a Hindu by her grandmother, but had the status ‘Islam’ in her identity card, ended up in an Islamic rehabilitation centre without her consent for six months and was forced to eat beef. Her child was taken from her Hindu husband.

A family was tortured and oppressed by an Islamic institution that was supposed to be fair and just.

For the Christian community, their religious materials like books and CDs were confiscated so many times by both civil and religious authorities even though they were only meant for church use. There’s also the case of Nisha Ayub who was forced to give sexual services in prison when she was arrested for wearing women’s clothes.

Those who support the proposed amendment to Act 355 seem to refuse to acknowledge the grave weaknesses in the protection of the accused under the current system. Any move to enhance Shariah punishments will only make things worse.

If you stay silent or if you support the proposed amendment to Act 355, it means that you’re allowing injustices in your own community.

With this, we say again: #TakNakUsul355

AZRUL MOHD KHALIB and AZIRA AZIZ are members of Bebas, which is is a movement that upholds equality, opposes racial discrimination and advocates for religious freedom in Malaysia.