Email to Hadi to withdraw the Syariah Criminal Enactment Bill to remove all provisions which are clearly against the Federal Constitution, violate human rights and discriminate against women


Media Conference Statement
by Lim Kit Siang

(Petaling Jaya,  Thursday)I have emailed to the Terengganu Mentri Besar, Datuk Hadi Awang calling for the withdrawal of the Terengganu Syariah Criminal Enactment Bill to remove all provisions which are clearly against the Federal Constitution, violate human rights and discriminate against women.  

In my email to Hadi, I stressed that to proceed with the Terengganu Syariah Criminal Enactment Bill is to invite legal challenge to its legality and constitutionality, as well as to fortify public perceptions and  convictions that PAS policies are at loggerheads with the 1957 Merdeka Constitution, the “social contract” and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement and incompatible with pluralism, human rights, women’s rights, development and modernity.

DAP is gravely concerned by the various provisions in the Bill,  in particular with regard to sections 8 and  9 where  a woman who reports that she has been raped will be charged with qazaf (slanderous accusation) and flogged 80 lashes if she is unable to prove the rape; section 22 concerning death and confiscation of all property for apostasy; section 43 denying women and non-Muslims from being witnesses and section 48(2) providing that an unmarried woman who is pregnant is assumed to have committed zina, even if she is raped.

It is also a matter of grave concern that the Terengganu State Government has refused to refer the Syariah Criminal Enactment Bill to the Attorney-General though it clearly contravenes the Federal law and  Malaysian Constitution, especially with regard to the constitutional limits of “3-5-6” restricting  state syariah laws from  imposing sentences exceeding three years’ jail, RM5,000 fine or six strokes of the rotan.

The statement attributed to Hadi in the New Straits Times last Thursday (6.6.2002) quoting him as saying that “We feel our obligation to God is greater than fulfilling the demands of the A-G’s Chambers” to explain why the Terengganu PAS Government intends to table its Syariah Criminal Enactment Bill next month instead of consulting the Attorney-General’s Chamber is deeply disturbing – as although the God-fearing sentiments of Hadi are most admirable, it is a matter of grave  concern as to what would happen in a multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia if everybody regards his or her obligation to God as greater and higher  than fulfilling the requirements of the Federal Constitution.

(13/6/2002)


*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman