Those campaigning against ' moral policing' are driven by a hidden motive to cause a split in the Muslim community here, alleged a Barisan Nasional (BN) backbencher today.

"We should not be trapped by their agenda that aims to split Muslims in this country and its multi-racial society," said Badruddin Amiruddin (BN-Jerai) during his debate at the Dewan Rakyat on the motion to thank the King for the royal address.

He claimed there were 'external elements' utilising local non-government organisations to achieve this purpose.

Badruddin said this when asked by Ismail Sabri Yaakob (BN-Bera) on whether he agreed with the campaign against 'moral policing'.

Elaborating, the Jerai MP said religious laws must be retained to safeguard the morality of Muslims.

"We can't let people take drugs as they like. We can't show others that our people's morality is so low when Malaysia is an Islamic country," he added.

He said prisons and courts should also therefore be abolished if there is opposition to the use of laws pertaining to morality.

"Do we hope to see a man and another man hold hands on the street one day? Western countries can do that but not us," added the vocal backbencher.

Personal choices

At this juncture, Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) interrupted and said it is inappropriate for enforcement officials to use their own definitions when taking action on matters such as attire and socialising because these are personal choices.

The opposition parliamentarian also stressed that there is no clear yardstick to gauge morality matters because certain enforcement officials could be '... lagging mentally and are not up to date'.

Responding, Badruddin said the state which enacts religious laws must defend and protect the laws.

"Batu Gajah (Fong) if you want to wear bikini you still can wear ... but we can't reach a stage where we become barbarians and not wear anything," he quipped.

"We can't amend Allah's laws to be in line with today's trends, I defend that 100 percent," he stressed.

Ismail Noh (PAS-Pasir Mas) said he fully agreed with the views of his BN counterpart.

Recently, a group of 53 NGOs endorsed a memorandum protesting 'moral policing', especially among Muslims.

They questioned the state's role in defining and controlling morality and the use of punitive religious and municipal laws to achieve this.

They expressed concern that the state would be more inclined to police private lives when religion is made part of the political arena.

The NGOs called for repeal of provisions in religious and municipal laws that deny citizens their fundamental rights to privacy, freedom of speech and expression, and those that overlap the Penal Code.

Ministerial support

In addition, they said a committee should be set up to monitor the repeal of these provisions and it should include representatives of women's and human rights groups, progressive religious scholars and constitutional experts.

Several Umno and Gerakan parliamentarians inked the memorandum when the group went to Parliament last week. Among the more notable ones were Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Dr Rais Yatim ( photo, left ) and Youth and Sports Minister Azalina Othman Said.

On Jan 20, about 100 Muslims, including scores of women, were detained by the Federal Territory Religious Department (Jawi) following a raid on a popular entertainment outlet in Kuala Lumpur.

The matter made headlines after those detained accused the Jawi officers of making lewd remarks and even preventing one female detainee from using the toilet.