Former police chief Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor today warned that Sabah and Sarawak may decide to leave the federation of Malaysia if Putrajaya allows Kelantan to go ahead with its plan to implement hudud.
The Malaysian Insider – Mon, Apr 6, 2015
Former police chief Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor today warned that Sabah and Sarawak may decide to leave the federation of Malaysia if Putrajaya allows Kelantan to go ahead with its plan to implement hudud.
Speaking to Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia, Rahim said the issue closely resembled the Scottish independence movement in which a referendum was recently held.
He said hudud was never part of the agreement during the negotiations to form the Malaysian federation, despite PAS promising the law would not be used against non-Muslims.
“As an example, the recently held referendum in Scotland wanting to end the union with England.
“We should not forget that the debate during Scotland’s independence referendum may happen in our country because the relevant parties, such as the people of Sabah and Sarawak, will question the things that were promised to them before the two states joined to form Malaysia,” Rahim said.
“They were never promised on the implementation of hudud. This issue membabitkan (involves) religions. We must not forget that the majority of bumiputera in Sabah and Sarawak are Christians,” he said.
He added that his worry stems from the rising trend of human rights awareness experienced around the world.
“Some of these human rights thinking are getting broader and set to erode all matters that have been agreed upon previously because they have this notion that existing rules violate individual rights.
Rahim said the people in Sabah and Sarawak too were undergoing a similar experience, not only in big cities, but also in rural areas.
“Information is moving fast and available on smartphones. In fact, during the negotiations prior to the formation of Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak leaders did not want to put Islam as the country’ official religion.
“At that time this was already a sensitive issue. They fear being discriminated against in terms of religion.
“I worry that as the day develops, matters such as this will cause distrust among the people in Sabah and Sarawak.
“If this happen, there will be issues touching on the integrity, security and Malaysia’s positiion as a federation,” he told Utusan.
Rahim also said that the implementation of hudud contradicted with the Article 8 of the Federal Constitution which stated that everyone have equal rights and are entitled to equal protection under the law.
He said Malaysia has various ethnic and religious backgrounds, so if hudud was implemented, issues involving the sensitivities of people from different religions will arise.
“For example, a theft committed by two criminals who happens to be of different religions. One a Muslim, another non-Muslim.
“The accused Muslim will be prosecuted under the hudud law. If it has been established that hudud is not used on non-Muslims, the other person will be charged based on the Penal Code.
“The accused Muslim will have his hand cut off while his non-Muslim friend will probably be slapped with a fine or jailed for a few days,” he said.
Rahim said such a scenario does not show that the two Malaysians are considered equal.
“What does this really mean for a multiethnic and multi religious country like Malaysia? To me, this kind of conflict can only cause anxiety in society,” he said.
Rahim’s view today echoed that of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who said that the hudud law proposed by PAS is unjust and against Islamic principles.
Dr Mahathir highlighted that the law was fundamentally unfair as it created two sets of laws, one for Muslims and another for non-Muslims.
“It is not Islamic hudud, it is PAS hudud.” he was quoted as saying. – April 6, 2015.