Malay DAP leader breaks silence on hudud

A Malay DAP leader from Penang has finally spoken up against the hudud law controversy, following a provoking challenge by a local based NGO that Muslims members in the party have been mum on the issue, showing a lack of leadership among them.


State DAP committee member Zulkifli Mohd Noor (left) said that Muslims cannot reject the law, however "it is not the right time" for the country to implement the Islamic jurisprudence.

He pointed out that there is no Islamic state in the world that can be used as a model to emulate the implementation of the hudud law.

"So, don't talk about hudud until Pakatan Rakyat takes over Putrajaya and becomes the federal government," he told Malaysiakini.

"BN has ruled the country for 55 years, led by Umno, supposedly a party of Malay Muslims, and still they cannot decide whether to implement the hudud law or not," he added.

"PAS has ruled Kelantan for over 20 years, and yet the party has yet to implement hudud law in the state," he quipped.

"So why are people asking the Malay DAP leaders to speak up and make their stand on the matter?" Zulkifli, a former Penang Municipal Councillor, asked.

Malaysia is a secular state

Zulkifli took a swipe at PAS and Umno for merely "talking" about hudud but unable to make a definite stand on its implementation.

He agreed with the party's national chief Karpal Singh who said that hudud cannot be implemented as the basic structure of the country is secular in nature.

Karpal, (right) a well-known lawyer, had then pointed  to a 1988 Supreme Court decision, where former Lord President Salleh Abbas said that Malaysia was a state with secular laws.

Zulkifli said that in the event that Pakatan Rakyat takes over the federal government, and hudud is agreed by all its coalition partners, the law can be implemented but on condition that it does not affect non-Muslims.

"There should also be a condition that it is not applied to those who claim to be liberal Muslims and do not agree to the implementation of the law, if we believe that in Islam there is no compulsion," Zulkifli said.

"The liberal Muslims must then declare themselves because they are answerable only to God. Religion is a personal thing between you and Allah," he added.

Who is the real ‘haram'?

Zulkifli urged the non-Muslims in BN and Pakatan not to talk about the hudud law as it does not concern them, and it is a subject "they know nothing about".

The biggest Muslim-majority country in Asia - Indonesia - has not implemented hudud law and their leaders are not heard talking about hudud.

"But here, we have non-Muslims talking about hudud. So, please do not ask DAP leaders to make a stand on the matter," he pleaded.

On statements by several Islamic scholars in the country who hold that it is "haram" to support DAP as the party rejects hudud law, and its members accused of being "unbelievers hostile to Islam" (kafir hasbi), Zulkifli has this to say:

"It's the registrar of societies under the Umno-led BN government which approved DAP as a legal political party in the country. If anyone is haram, they should be the ones".