COMMENT Sabah PAS disagrees with the statements made by Reverend Jerry Dusing and former police chief Abdul Rahim Noor published in local newspapers on March 28 and April 7, respectively.

Dusing stated that allowing hudud to be implemented in Malaysia was a betrayal of the trust placed by Sabah’s forefathers in a nation that was meant to be secular.

Rahim warned that Sabah and Sarawak may decide to leave Malaysia if Putrajaya allows Kelantan to go ahead with its plan to implement hudud.

Both statements are incorrect.

First, they ignore the basic fact that the Kelantan State Legislative Assembly passed the amendments to the Syariah Criminal Code II 1993 unanimously.

Hence, the amendment to the code was made through a democratic process. Malaysia, including Sabah, practices democracy. Therefore, the Kelantan’s decision to pass the hudud bill deserves respect. 

Secondly, if hudud is implemented in Kelantan, it does not infringe on the freedom of religion in Malaysia, including Sabah.

Hudud will apply only to the Muslims and in Kelantan only. There is no way that hudud will violate that guaranteed right.

Freedom of religion

Freedom of religion is guaranteed in Malaysia by virtue of Article 11 of the Federal Constitution, whereby every person has the right to profess and practice his religion and, subject to Clause 4, to propagate it.

In respect of Sabah, it is in Article 5A of the Sabah Constitution, which states Islam is the religion of the state, but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the state.

Dusing ( left ) referred to the Commission of Inquiry on North Borneo and Sarawak on June 21, 1962, to say that there was assurance that Malaysia would be a secular nation.

With due respect, I disagree.

The phrase quoted by the reverend in his statement was in respect of the commission’s recommendation relating to the issue of religion of the state and the nation.

The commission was concerned about the freedom of religion which should be safeguarded. This is clear when the members of the commission stated that “the proposal in no way jeopardies freedom of religion in the federation, which in effect would be secular”.

The same about Article 13 of the Memorandum on Malaysia dated June 3, 1962, is quoted by Dusing.

The committee was also referring to freedom of religion. Hudud is a criminal penal system for certain offences committed by Muslims only. How does it violate the religious freedom in Malaysia? 

In Sabah, despite the amendment to the State Constitution in 1973 to make Islam as the state religion, the freedom of religion has not been contravened.

Similarly, the introduction of Syariah Criminal Offences 1995 in Sabah in 1995, which only applies to the Muslims, has never disturbed that freedom. Our state has always been peaceful.

Islam religion of state, but life goes on

Sabahans practise their own religions freely and without interruption. No one has ever claimed that the formation of Malaysia was betrayed with the amendment to the state constitution and the introduction of the syariah criminal enactment.

There was no issue of Sabah leaving Malaysia due to the same facts.

No similar claim and issue were even made when the first Islamic bank in Malaysia was established in 1983 and when commercial banks, merchant banks and finance companies were allowed to offer Islamic banking products and services under the Islamic Banking Scheme (IBS) in 1993.

However, when it comes to hudud, certain people and groups are very quick to have negative perception about it, even connecting it to the formation of Malaysia. I find this very strange and unreasonable. 

Thirdly, if Malaysia is given the literal meaning of a secular state, that amounts to infringement of  Article 11 of the Federal Constitution and Article 5A of the Sabah Constitution.

The Muslims are therefore prohibited to practise their religion freely.

Quran isn’t just for reading

In other words, the Quran is only meant for reading, but not for practice. The same with the sunnah (traditions) of Prophet Muhammad only for historical reading but should not be followed. That is entirely incorrect.

Muslims should practise Islam according to the Quran and sunnah. If their practice is against them, they have practised wrongly. 

It is for these reasons I doubt the claims that implementation of hudud laws is against any agreement relating to formation of Malaysia or it will lead Sabah and Sarawak to leave Malaysia.

People should not be afraid with the implementation of hudud. Hudud is Allah’s law, not PAS’ law.

PAS will follow the democratic way to implement it. And its implementation won’t infringe upon religious freedom in Malaysia. 

HAMID ISMAIL is Sabah PAS commissioner.