The government should set up a royal commission to draft the hudud law for the country, urged Malay rights group Perkasa.

Its president Ibrahim Ali said this is not to pressure the government to implement the law, but to put an end to the polemics surrounding the issue and to serve as an academic document to teach people what hudud is.

"When the document is displayed before the rakyat, it can be used as educational material to explain the benefits of hudud and its relationship to Muslims.

"Similarly, non-Muslims too can learn and understand the advantages of hudud law," he told some 100 supporters in a ceramah last night.

Tension and confusion

He was telling supporters what he had told reporters earlier that day in his speech at the launch of Perkasa's Selangor headquarters in Shah Alam.

Ibrahim said although there is no draft document at the moment, there are already parties objecting to it and this is causing tension between Muslims and non-Muslims and confusion amongst both groups.

"Therefore my suggestion is merely to calm the situation and to prevent hudud from becoming a political issue," said the Pasir Mas independent MP, pointing out that the issue is raised whenever elections are near.

He said at this stage, the purpose of the draft document is merely to educate. However, it can be implemented once society is ready to accept it and the government is ready to enforce it, perhaps decades later.

NONE The prospect of implementing the Islam-inspired criminal law has been raised by PAS and occasionally Umno from time-to-time over the decades, with MCA and DAP being its most vocal critics.

The most recent round of discussion kicked off whe Umno's Kemeleh state assemblyperson Ayub Rahmat ( right ) mooted the idea of implementing ‘hudud for all ' in Johor, whether Muslims or non-Muslims.