Human rights lawyer, writer and member of the Malaysian Bar Council's Constitutional Law Commitee Azahar Harun said this is one of the ways for Malaysian society to move forward and free the country from the continuous and tiring debate on hudud.
"Don't vote for PAS, or any party that partners with them," he said during MCA's "Hudud-A Nation At Crossroads" forum on Saturday, May 17, 2014.
He was addressing the crowd of 200 at Wisma MCA yesterday during his closing remarks, where he further commented that Malaysia faces economic ruin if the Islamic criminal law is implemented.
Azahar said foreign investors will flee the country the very next day if the law is implemented and the Kuala Lumpur Stock Market would crash in an instant.
"If you implement hudud today, you can forget about foreign investments tomorrow. The Bursa will go south and our economy will go down.
"I think we cannot take that kind of risk as a nation. I don't think Obama would want to come here again," he quipped, prompting chuckles from the crowd.
He said the debate on hudud has been hijacked by religionists for their own agenda and the common folk needs to divert it back to debating hudud based on the constitutional framework.
He added that if hudud is implemented throughout Malaysia, new institutions would need to be set up in all states to facilitate the law and this would create inequalities among Malaysians along religious lines.
Former Bersih 2.0 co-chairman Datuk S. Ambiga said the Federal Constitution is secular in nature and should not be amended beyond its original intentions, such as amendments to facilitate hudud.
"This is an assault to the Federal Constitution, and we all will live to regret it, just like how we are now regretting the 1988 constitutional crisis," she said.
The Syaria courts were elevated to match the powers of civil courts and the Lord President of the Supreme Court, Tun Salleh Abbas was removed as head of the judiciary.
Ambiga said there are obvious inequalities against women and non-Muslims in the hudud law, as seen in the laws that have been gazetted in Terrengganu and Kelantan.
She also asserted that if a fair and just society is a prerequisite of hudud implementation, then why is PAS pushing for it when they know that the Malaysian system is flawed.
"There are many good people in PAS who fought against the system which they know is rotten to the core. Then why do you (PAS) want hudud now?" Ambiga said.
She also added that Malaysia has the potential to be the "Switzerland of the East" if the Federal Constitution is upheld and extremism is discouraged.
Former Bar Council president Lim Chee Wee said that Malaysia was intended by the founding fathers to be a secular nation with Islam as the religion of the federation.
He said statements made in the past by Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn indicate Malaysia's secular nature, and former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has said that hudud would not be fair to Malay Muslims.
He also pointed out that in the Global Peace Index score, countries where Syaria law is enforced rank among the lowest of 162 countries, with the worst being Afghanistan.
Former president of the Buddhist Missionary Society of Malaysia (BMSM) Datuk Ang Choo Hong said it is fascism to call for the implementation of hudud while stifling dissent.
"It is fascism to implement public policy and tell others to shut up about it. But it is public policy and everyone has the right to comment and debate on it.
"It is only a private member's bill now and they are already telling us to shut up. Can you imagine when it becomes law?" Ang said.
Lee Choon Fai
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