K KANGSAR POLLS MCA Wanita chief Heng Seai Kie is seeing red over PAS’ Perak commissioner Razman Zakaria's call for Kuala Kangsar folk to give the hudud a try so that “Ah Moi” will not be harassed.

Razman said this during a dialogue session with PAS' Kuala Kangsar candidate Dr Najihatussalehah Ahmad.

Heng said hudud was not something to try out, and especially so that “Ah Moi won’t get harassed”, as claimed by Zakaria.

"Hudud law (will) embolden sex predators and thus the prey will be subjected to additional harassment and post-trauma persecution, contrary to the claims of PAS," she said.

She added that sex crimes were not only committed against ‘Ah Moi' – a term generally used to refer to ethnic Chinese young women in a teasing manner, sometimes seen as disrespectful.

"Even males and minor children can be subject to rape or non-consensual sodomy by perpetrators," she said.

Heng cited examples from Pakistan, where women have been imprisoned on grounds of lodging a false report when they could not produce the required four male witnesses to testify that a rape happened.

She also cited cases of women in Aceh in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia who were flogged for pre- or extramarital sex when they could not prove that they were raped.
She said this would only instil fear among victims of abuse, stopping them from coming forward and burying the crime underground.

She added that victims of sexual abuse found it difficult to lodge complaints due to stigma, especially in rural areas or in cases where the perpetrator is a relative.

“So simple for PAS to say “give hudud a try”, but once the law is changed and the pain of the rotan tearing up the victim’s flesh is heard with each blow, how to undo the damage?” she asked.

'Has the PAS doctor forgotten the Hippocratic Oath?'

In a separate statement, MCA Perak committee chairperson Dr Mah Hang Soon told Najihatussalehah to respond to PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s comparison of amputation of healthy limbs for theft under hudud, to that of gangrenous limbs of diabetic patients.

Mah, who is also a medical doctor, said amputation of diabetic patients’ limbs was always the last resort, and only to save a life.

"As a fellow trained medical doctor, I challenge Najihatussalehah to declare if she is willing to be one of the medical doctors to sever a limb as required by PAS for Kelantan.

"Perak MCA hopes she has not forgotten her Hippocratic Oath she vowed during her medical student days, whereby doctors are required to heal and uphold medical standards, and certainly not disfigure and impoverish people," he said.

Najihatussalehah is up against Amanah’s Ahmad Termizi Ramli, BN’s Mastura Mohd Yazid and independent candidate Izat Bukhary Ismail Bukhary.

The seat fell vacant after incumbent MP, BN’s Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad, died in a helicopter crash in Sebuyau, Sarawak on May 5, during the Sarawak election campaign period.
Hudud is a focal point for the by-election, after the government tabled a motion to prioritise a bill to amend Act 355 ahead of government business in the last Dewan Rakyat session on May 26.

Act 355 deals with jurisdiction of syariah courts, and Hadi’s Private Members’ Bill aims to amend it, paving the way for implemention of hudud in Kelantan.

Hadi’s bill was not tabled despite the government giving way, due to time constraints as it was at the tail end of the session. Hadi requested the bill be tabled in the October session.