KELANTAN, March 19 – Kelantan PAS says the numbers in Parliament are in its favour as it only needs a simple majority to get hudud implemented in the state by amending a law governing the scope of the Shariah courts, and not the Federal Constitution, deputy menteri besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said. The plan to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 by way of a private member’s bill in Parliament will only need 112 votes from the 222-member federal legislature, and quashes earlier talk that the Islamist party lacked the numbers to enforce hudud by amending the constitution.
Amending the Shariah Courts Act, also known as Act 355, should pose no problem after the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code II Enactment 1993 (2015) bill is passed by the state assembly, likely today, said Amar. “The private member’s bill is only to seek amendments to Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965. This act needs a simple majority, just 112 MPs. We are not amending the constitution. “We only need a simple majority in Parliament,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
There are 126 Muslim MPs in Parliament. PAS has 21 seats, its opposition allies PKR and DAP 16 and two respectively, and the ruling Barisan Nasional, 87. While this total is far short of the 148 votes or two-thirds needed to approve a change to the constitution, it allows a margin for a simple majority even if the two Muslim MPs from the strongly secular DAP were to vote against any proposal. PKR Muslim MPs have been mostly reticent when asked previously if they would or would not vote in support of hudud, which is not part of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) common policy.
Analysts and political observers have previously said that PAS’s plan to implement the Islamic penal code in Kelantan would fail as it lacked the numbers, but that was on the premise that constitutional amendments would be proposed. After Kelantan legislators tabled and debated amendments on hudud yesterday, Amar said the state government would have no problems enforcing the code if all Muslim MPs voted in favour of the private member’s bill to allow its implementation, once it was tabled in Parliament.
He said the Kelantan government’s hudud agenda was not political, so the Muslim MPs should view it from a religious context. “I urge all Muslim MPs, regardless of their party, to join us when we table this private member’s bill in Parliament. Because this is a religious issue and not a political one. We don’t want to politicise this. “If all the Muslim MPs support it, the problem is solved. We would have the support of 132 Muslim MPs regardless of their party, and we only need 112 votes,” he had said in Kota Baru yesterday.
Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob said they wanted Act 335 amended so that the Shariah courts could carry out the sentences under hudud law. The act restricts the criminal jurisdiction of the Shariah courts. “The act currently provides the court the power to only carry out 3-5-6,” he said, referring to the three punishments outlined in the act: a maximum prison term of three years, a fine of not more than RM5,000 and up to six strokes of the cane.
Ahmad added that PR leaders were aware the Federal Constitution need not be amended for the state government to enforce hudud, but were complicating the situation deliberately. “We have explained it to them many times. They are just creating a tense situation. We understand more than them in terms of what to do, there is no problem. “What’s more, at this juncture, hudud is only for Muslims. Not for others,” Ahmad said. PAS and DAP, in particular, have been at loggerheads over Kelantan’s hudud plan.
Yesterday, DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke said the DAP leadership would meet on Monday to discuss and decide the party’s direction with PR after being “stabbed in the back” by Kelantan PAS. No private member’s bill, however, has been submitted by PAS for the current parliamentary sitting which ends on April 9. It is also learnt that the PAS central committee has not taken a stand on how to proceed with a private member’s bill in Parliament. So far, the party’s central leadership has allowed Kelantan PAS to formulate its own hudud plan but is expected to exert its stance if the matter progresses to the parliamentary level.
