KUALA LUMPUR: Certain parties are taking advantage of the motion to amend the Bill on the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Act 1965 as proposed by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to frighten the public for their own political agenda, said legal experts.
They are manipulating the issue while the amendments are intended to give the syariah court wider powers to impose heavier sentences on offences which are already within the Act which has existed since 1965.
Chief executive officer of the Malaysian Islamic Strategic Research Institute (IKSIM) Datuk Prof Mahamad Naser Disa said certain parties were purposely taking advantage of the motion to amend the Act, more commonly known as RUU355, to confuse the public when it was not as bad as had been made out.
“There are politicians with secular thinking who purposely pretend not to understand the RUU355 and then try to confuse the public. I believe they have a personal agenda.
“In fact, they compare the situation in Malaysia with Turkey in matters relating to the syariah court. We in Malaysia have Islam, there is no secular thought like in Turkey. So they intentionally create an agenda and take advantage of the situation,” he said.
He was speaking as a panel member of a special media information briefing on the Act 355 held at the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM) here yesterday.
Abdul Hadi had proposed the Bill on the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Act 1965 in the Dewan Rakyat on Nov 24 last year.
Mahamad Naser said the opposition parties seemed to be uncertain over their stand on the amendments and tried to reject them, while BN was expected to make a decision on the matter soon.
“Personally, I feel the amendments will be successful. The decision will be made by the government in March,” he said.
Mahamad Naser added that sentences for offences under the Act will be determined by the State Assemblies, and they will not be made lightly.
“Hadi can make any proposal, but they cannot be easily made. The State Assemblies will amend and determine the sentence. For instance, the jail sentence, the fine for khalwat cases, dumping of babies, alcohol consumption, will be increased and made heavier,” he said.
Mahamad Naser stressed that non-Muslims would not be subjected to the law because they would be judged in the civil court.
Meanwhile, Associate Professor Dr Shamrahayu A. Aziz, senior fellow at IKIM who was also a panel member in the programme said the issue was whether the existing sentences under the Syariah criminal system were effective enough to uphold the principles of Islam.
She said certain parties felt that the light sentences imposed by the Syariah Court now did not have a preventive effect on the widespread occurrence of crimes.
“There are also those who feel that the limited sentences are demeaning to Islam…the sentences are too light and far from what has been set by Islam,” she said.
For instance, she said, the penalty for offences like adultery and alcohol consumption was currently only RM5,000 or three years imprisonment and six strokes of the cane.
She said these penalties were much lighter than the ones set out under Islamic law, which was stoning till death or 100 strokes of the cane for adultery and 40 or 80 strokes for consuming alcohol. — Bernama