Mariam Mokhtar, The Ant DailyMalaysia is at a crossroads and if we make the wrong turn, we may never recover. As our leaders wrangle with one another about implementing hudud, the rakyat are aware that the implications of hudud are serious. Our quarrel is not with Islam, but if hudud is implemented in Kelantan, it will not be long before life in multicultural Malaysia, as we know it, will be a thing of the past. If hudud was to be implemented, the emergent Islamicised country might as well be called Malaynistan.
It is not true that non-Malays will be spared from hudud. It is also not true that all Malays agree with the implementation of hudud. It would be wrong to think that the Malays who oppose hudud are non-religious or are liberal or western in outlook. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If our leaders have failed to inspire us, then let us attempt to guide them. Instead of thinking in terms of Malay, Chinese, Indian, or Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and so on, why won’t our leaders be more principled and lead us based on what is right for the nation as a whole?
Datuk Seri Najib Razak refuses to state that hudud is unacceptable. This is Najib’s philosophy of making hay while the sun shines. He knows that many Malays are opposed to hudud and he presumably hopes to entice these Malays into the welcoming arms of his party, Umno Baru.
If hudud was a vote winner, wouldn’t Umno Baru have included it in its campaigns during the last general election? Najib is aware of miscarriages of justice in countries with hudud. He knows that many of these countries are economically backward, struggle to attract foreign investment and the women of all of these countries are repressed.
Karpal Singh was right when he said that we should refer to and uphold the constitution. Malaysia has its foundations in a secular state where religion is kept separate from politics. We are a constitutional democracy. Having hudud will mean we become a theocracy.
Our first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman was a patron of traditional Malay culture, Asian football and local horseracing. In 1975, his friends offered him a share in their racehorse, Think Big, which was racing in Australia. The horse won the Melbourne Cup and when he received the winner’s trophy, Tunku swopped his top hat for a black songkok and as the cup was placed in his hands, said: “I thank God for our victory.” He repeated this phrase later that night at the Victory Cup Ball.
Was Tunku a lesser Muslim just because he had a passion for racing? If hudud was to be implemented, what would happen to all the Malays and Muslims who are currently employed in trades which involve gambling or liquor? These range from manufacturing to transport, from hotels to the airline industry. Will the government provide welfare assistance for those who are out of work? Will it be a non-Malay employees market?
Malay dancing and the Ronggeng were popular throughout Malaya before the Japanese Occupation of 1942-1945. Tunku wanted to create a centre of Malay culture and revive the heritage of past centuries. With the aid of Malay youths, he helped revive the oldest Malay dance and managed to introduce dance as a means of entertainment-cum-diplomacy.
When he became PM, he would entertain foreign dignitaries and in his biography, “Tunku: His Life and Times” by Mubin Sheppard, these dignitaries would end up dancing the Ronggeng after their official dinners.
Today, Malay dancing is a thing of the past. People who recall the old Malay weddings, which frequently ended with dancing, said that they were fun events and not the sombre, show-off ceremonies which are common-place nowadays.
The Tunku was a religious man, but he did not forget his Malay heritage. Will hudud erase the last vestiges of Malay culture? If dancing, singing and education for girls were eradicated in Afghanistan, might the same happen in Malaysia?
The Tunku was like any other Malaysian. The difference between him and his successors, the current crop of leaders, is that he did not hide behind the veil of hypocrisy.
His “what you see is what you get” attitude endeared him to the public. When he was advised to stop drinking alcohol at one of the earlier Umno meetings, he said: “People must accept me as I am: my bad habits and my virtues. At the age of 48, I cannot change them.”
We have seen the decline in the numbers of non-Malays representing Malaysia in sports and cultural troupes. What will hudud mean for Kelantan and for Malaysia?
Different states have different definitions of the Syariah law, for instance in cases of polygamy. How can a nation thrive if laws are not administered in the same way in every state? Already, one state in the south of the country has deemed that a former sultanah was divorced, nine months after the death of her husband. What other anomalies might hudud throw up?
The constitution states that Islam is protected as the nation’s official religion. Our leaders pretend that they are curbing extremism but they are ineffectual. The establishment simply looks the other way. Religious radicals torment the minority groups of Malaysia by seizing their bibles and banning the use of certain words. Their places of worship will soon be regulated and in the latest move, hotels have been instructed to remove bibles from guests’ rooms. What lies in store next, both for Muslims and non-Muslims?
In Islam, women and men are equal but in Malaysia, there are different tiers of equality; the ordinary rakyat, the rich rakyat, the well-connected cronies, the Umno Baru elite, the ulamas and royalty. As the former sultanah found to her cost, even Syariah law could not protect her.
Moral of the story: In the West, a good lawyer knows the law; in Malaysia, a good lawyer knows the judge.
Mariam Mokhtar is "a Malaysian who dares to speak the truth."
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