Former inspector-general of police (IGP) Abdul Rahim Noor believes Sabah and Sarawak may decide to quit the Federation of Malaysia if Putrajaya doesn’t stop Kelantan from implementing hudud.

He said hudud was not part of the Malaysia Agreement, and implementing it may spur Sabah and Sarawak to push for a secession referendum, similar to the one held by Scotland last year.

“The people of Sabah and Sarawak are questioning the promises made to them before they helped form Malaysia. They were not promised hudud,” he told Utusan Malaysia in an exclusive interview.

“I worry that, day by day, tumultuous issues such as this will raise scepticism among Sabahans and Sarawakians,” he added.

The Kelantan state assembly has already approved a hudud bill.

PAS is now pushing a private member’s bill in Parliament to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdictions) Act to allow the state to implement the act.

Star Sabah chief Jeffrey Kitingan however believes the bid will fail, as it is against the constitution.

“You can’t have two sets of laws to govern the people of this country, especially criminal law,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.

As such, he said, there is no concern of hudud spurring the East Malaysia secession movement.

That is of course, unless Putrajaya decides to make it a federal law.

“Sabah and Sarawak have many dissatisfactions, and by passing (hudud nationwide) you (Putrajaya) are adding to that dissatisfaction.

“He (Rahim) is right, in the formation of Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak have no official religion and that should be maintained,” he said.

Without going into too much detail, Kitingan ( right ) said among the dissastisfactions were non-compliance to the Malaysia Agreement, Putrajaya not listening and unwillingness to discuss Sabah’s and Sarawak’s grouses.

The East Malaysia secession movement has been picking up steam over the past few years, prompting Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to declare that the urgings of secession are seditious .