The Kuching Ministers’ Fellowship (KMF), a network of church pastors and leaders in Sarawak, is the latest group to strongly oppose the move to implement hudud laws in the country.

 

To date, several quarters including political parties and non-government organisations in Sarawak have made clear their stand against hudud laws.

 

KMF is in solidarity with the Sabah Council of Churches in their statement against Kelantan’s hudud enactment, said KMF chairperson pastor Daron Tan.

 

“Sarawak churches are deeply concerned over the passing of the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code II Enactment 1993 (amendment 2015) on March 19.  

 

“The planned introduction of hudud law is a fundamental breach and deviation from the expressed commitment to complete religious freedom, a key term underpinning the Malaysia Agreement signed of July 1963 between Sarawak, Sabah and Malaya,” he said in a statement yesterday.

 

He was responding to the move by the PAS-controlled Kelantan legislative assembly which on March 19 unanimously passed a bill to amend the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code II 1993 - the first step towards implementing hudud law in the state.

 

The second step requires amendments made to the federal constitution and towards this PAS has tabled a private member’s bill at the current parliament session to allow these amendments.

 

If these amendments to the federal constitution are allowed by the House, hudud law implementation will be enabled nationwide.

 

Bitter controversy over the matter has already caused a split in the opposition Pakatan Rakyat while the Umno-controlled government has until today yet to make its stand known.           

 

Do not alter foundations

 

Tan said the original basis on which Sarawak, Sabah and Malaya formed secular Malaysia had now been breached in a very fundamental way, pointing out that the recently-passed amendments to the Kelantan hudud enactment was in direct contradiction to the aspirations of founding fathers to keep Malaysia a secular state.

 

Those aspirations were evidenced in several historical documents that explicitly stated Malaysia be kept a secular state, he said. 

 

He said the civil criminal justice system remained a federal jurisdiction and was part of the entire constitutional package embodied in the ninth schedule of the federal constitution.

 

“Any fundamental change to this schedule changes the very basis upon which the Christians in Sarawak agreed to form Malaysia and it requires a thorough re-negotiation of the federal constitution,” he warned.

 

Tan called on all Christians in Sarawak to stand firm against any fundamental shift in the way the country’s law affected them and called on the government to make all efforts to maintain Malaysia as a secular nation in which all religious faiths could co-exist and flourish together. 

 

He also urged lawmakers from across the political divide not to pass any legislation that altered the foundations laid by the Malaysia’s founding fathers.  

 

Some 60 percent of Sarawak’s 2.6 million people are Christians while Muslims form about 20 percent. The rest are Buddhists and adherents of other religions.

Renegotiate constitution if Kelantan must have hudud