INTERVIEW At the height of the push for hudud by PAS when it was in power in both Kelantan and Terengganu, Zaid Ibrahim emerged as one of the few Muslims opposing the syariah penal code and publicly spoke out against the Islamist party.

 

Zaid, who was then Kota Bharu Umno division chief, had in 2002 filed an application at the Federal Court for a declaration that Kelantan and Terengganu had no power to legislate the Islamic criminal law, including hudud.

                                   

A decision then could have put the debate on hudud to rest. But Zaid later withdrew his court application.

 

"I was told to withdraw the court application," he explained in an interview with Malaysiakini at his residence in Tropicana, Petaling Jaya, last week.

 

However, he would not name those who instructed him to do so.

 

"It was politically too difficult for them (those who told him to withdraw the suit) to handle the issue before the coming general election (of 2004). They did not want my suit to be blamed if there was a big loss in the election.

 

"I was a very obedient (Umno) party member at that time," he conceded.

 

And so the debate on hudud rages on till today, 12 years later.

 

Looking at the matter retrospectively, Zaid said, perhaps he was wrong in withdrawing the suit, but "we do what we have to at that point of time, and I have no regrets".

 

The former de facto law minister is known for his stubborn political stance, having quit Umno over disagreements on detention without trial and later, leaving PKR and Kita over political differences with them.                    

 

A weary Zaid said he would not take the hudud issue to court again, despite the matter being reignited once again with PAS planning to table a Private Member's Bill in the June session of Parliament.

 

The bill is to give force to the hudud enactment that the Kelantan state assembly passed in 1993.

 

However, PAS last Sunday announced that it would not table the Private Member's Bill in light of the new joint technical committee that has been formed between the PAS Kelantan government and the federal government to study the matter.

 

'Najib should second Hudud bill '

 

Zaid insisted that hudud is unconstitutional and that it was now time for the others to take up the cudgels to challenge any move to enforce hudud, while he would take a back seat this time.

                                   

"It costs money and a lot of people for this (legal) action... It is not my job, it is the government and the leaders who should be doing this," said Zaid, the founder of the country's largest law firm, Zaid Ibrahim & Co.

 

He left the law firm in 2004 after being appointed as a cabinet minister following the country's 11th general election.

 

Zaid contended that no bill on hudud should see the light of day in Parliament as it would be unconstitutional.

 

However, if Umno was insistent on courting PAS on the matter, then Umno president and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak himself should second the bill.

 

"(PAS president) Abdul Hadi Awang should propose it (the bill) and Najib should second it. Be a man. Don't play like this... but if I'm an MP, I will certainly vote against it," he said.

 

He added that despite his opposition to hudud, PAS had at least been consistent in its theocratic ambitions while Umno swayed back and forth on it.

 

Amid Putrajaya's teetering on the issue - a move Zaid believes is political - he said Sabah and Sarawak needed to assert themselves against what is "Peninsular politicking'.

 

"This (hudud) was not a matter when they (Sabah and Sarawak) joined this federation, they joined a secular Malaya... it can affect them in a fundamental way and they should be concerned and put their foot down," he said.

 

Likewise, the middle class should also need to speak up.

 

Zaid warned that Umno's overtures to PAS on hudud may seem a good idea to destabilise Pakatan Rakyat, but that it could backfire and hurt BN too.

 

"What makes them (Umno) think that this will not break the BN up?" he asked.

 

Yesterday: Zaid: I'm a good Muslim; I'm against hudud