Published: Tuesday December 23, 2008 MYT 8:29:00 PM
DAP outlines objections to PAS plan for hudud laws
PETALING JAYA: The statement by Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat that PAS would implement hudud laws did not consider the political reality in the country, Karpal Singh said.
The DAP chairman said Nik Aziz, the PAS spiritual leader, also did not take into account the reasons given by DAP for objecting to the implementation of the laws in a multiracial and multilingual country like Malaysia.
“Nik Aziz has asked for reasons why we are objecting to the move. To start off, the Federal Constitution does not provide for an Islamic state from which introduction of Islamic criminal laws like hudud could follow.
“Next, PAS cannot afford to ignore the five-man unanimous decision of the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, in 1988 that the country was not an Islamic state but a secular state,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
He noted that it was Tun Salleh Abbas, who was at one time a PAS state exco member in Terengganu, who headed the five-man panel of the Supreme Court that had made that judicial pronouncement.
“The Federal Constitution is a sacred document which must be accepted and respected by everyone, including PAS.
“Its leaders, including Nik Aziz, should not defy and continuously be in contempt of it when insisting on the implementation of hudud laws in the country.
“It is wrong for PAS, for political expediency, to crave what is clearly against national interests,” he added.
Karpal said PAS should also be careful not to scuttle the smooth running of the Pakatan Rakyat alliance and reminded the party that threatening to go ahead with its plan would be counter-productive to its interests.
He also urged PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to speak up on the issue.
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