Kuala Terengganu By-Election: Controversy of Hudud Law and Its Implications/ 我对瓜登补选的看法

I went campaigning in the Kuala Terengganu by-election on the 8^th January accompanied by YB Chua Tee Yong, the MP for Labis, some MCA, Wanita and Youth members of the Kuala Terengganu division.

Arriving at 8.30a.m. in Kuala Terengganu airport by Firefly, we went for breakfast. After that, we started work.

We covered about 50 shop houses in the city centre. The response was good and I was pleasantly surprised that most of the voters know me by my full name.

A few requested to take photograph with me while some requested for my signature on the New Year greeting card. Of course I have to oblige to their requests. Facial and name recognition seems to help in the walk about.

After lunch, we met up with the Teochew Association of Kuala Terengganu. The Teochews numbered about 80 families in the Kuala Terengganu town.

Most of them are small time businessman. During the dialogue, nothing very much inspired.

However, during teatime interaction, a lot generally acknowledged that if they support PAS, it is because they are not happy with UMNO and not because they subscribe to PAS’ political agenda.

The fact that BN will not lose control at the federal level if it loses the by-election seems to be working to the advantage of the PAS.

I took the opportunity to talk about how voters should exercise their votes wisely and that it should not be swayed by emotion.

During voting, I said that voters should evaluate:

1) The candidate’s party;

2) The quality of the candidate

The party is important. This may explain why very few independent candidates are successful during election.

In this case, we have an UMNO and BN candidate pitted against PAS and PR party.

After the Teochew Association meeting, we went to a medium 4 storey flat. It was a good exercise covering blocks of 4 storeys flat.

Occupants of the 4 floors were surprised to see me when I knock at the door since they assume that they hardly have anyone knocking at the door when they are living on 4^th floor.

During 308 election, people voted for change. We now have 5 PR state government. People have the opportunity to evaluate the performance of the PR government.

The important question is whether PR state has done better than BN state government or not.

Have they implemented what is contained in their manifesto, such as local council election and election for village chief?

PAS talks about welfare state during the 308 election and today it is talking about Hudud law. Even Anwar also supports Hudud law by saying that it is only applicable to Muslims.

Is PAS on an expedition of fishing the Malay votes with Kuala Terengganu by-election in mind where Islam holds a central place in daily lives of average Malay in Terengganu?

Will the Chinese be frightened by Hudud law?

I think we have oversimplified Hudud implementation by talking only about the punitive action of Hudud law.

We tend to talk about restriction of the sale of alcohol and gambling outlet as if this is all about Hudud.

We have failed to talk about the bigger picture of Hudud and its effect in a multiracial country like Malaysia.

Today, there are over 50 countries in the world where Muslims is dominant with Islam as the official religion or they are Islamic statehood.

Strictly speaking, there are only 2 among 50 over countries that practice a more western form of Parliamentary democracy, which is Malaysia and Turkey.

The rest are often autocratic. They may have election about what is beyond our comprehension is that often some of these countries have Islamic Religion Council of which their position and power is way above the Parliament. The council members are appointed members.

It can be noted that most of these countries are not doing well economically despite they are having a lot of oil.

Generally, they are not investor and tourism friendly. Often, people will quote the example of Egypt and South Korea.

35 years ago, Egypt and South Korea have the same capital income. But today, Egypt’s per capital income is not even 20 percent that of South Korea.

Hudud implementation has wide ramification and implications in a multiracial country like Malaysia. It will be a messy job to implement Hudud only among Muslims and leaving the non-Muslims to the civil law.

Presently, we have enough confusion and controversy even with syariah and civil law. It will just add more confusion to what is already a difficult problem to resolve between syariah and civil law in some divorce cases where one of the spouse in converted to Islam.

本月8日，我由拉美士国会议员蔡智勇、以及一些来自瓜拉登嘉楼马华、妇女组和马青同志陪同下，在瓜登展开补选拉票运动。

当天清晨8时30分，我乘着飞萤航机抵至瓜登，用过早餐后就开始工作。

我们拜访市中心约50间店屋，选民反应出奇的好，令我受惊若宠的是大部分选民都认识我，还叫得出我的名字。

一些选民要求与我合照，一些则取出贺年卡要我签名，我当然不会令他们失望。熟悉的名字与脸孔对逐户拜访的确有帮助的。

午膳后，我们会见瓜登潮州会馆的会员。当地约有80个潮州家庭，他们大部分是小商贩。我们在对话交谈中并没有得到太大的启发，然而，在茶点时间的交流中，我发觉他们普遍上都承认，如果他们投选回教党，原因是不喜欢巫统，而非支持贺认同回教党的政治议程。

这里点出一个事实：如果国阵在这场补选失利，并不会影响该联盟持有的中央政权。这样的论点对回教党相当有利，他们也会利用次论调拜票。

我籍此机会向选民解说，他们应该精明地利用选票，万万不可受到情绪的影响左右。

我要求选民在投票时，必须慎重的评估：
1）候选人隶属的政党；
2）候选人的素质。

政党扮演非常重要的角色，这说明了为什么独立人士都不容易在选举中突围而出。因此在这起补选中，我们国阵与巫统候选人事实上是直接对垒回教党和民联候选人。

告別潮州会馆同乡后，我们到访4层楼的组屋，我也乘机好好地运动一番，我向4楼的住家叩门时，住户见到我时感到惊喜，可能是因为他们住在高高的4楼，平日罕有访客吧！

308全国大选时，人民期盼改变。目前有5个州属归民联管辖，人民因此有机会评估民联政府的表现。关鍵问题是，民联政府管理的州属是否比之前的国阵州政府还要好？

民联州政府是否已经履行宣言內容，诸如地方议席选举和村长选举？

回教党在308大选中大事宣传要建立“福利州”的意愿，但今天却不断提到实施断肢法。事实上，安华也是支持断肢法，而且已解释和强调这适用于所有的回教徒。

回教党是否在瓜登补选中企图擄获马来人的选票？他们认为，回教教义占据了瓜登一般马来人的生活。

华人会否畏惧断肢法？

我想，如果我们在讨论断肢法时只是触及它的的刑罚，可能把断肢法的定义简化了。我们只提及禁酒、禁赌，笼统的以为这就是断肢法的一切。其实我们并没有向华社全面性的解释断肢法以及其对马来西亚这个多元种族国家的影响。

今天，全球有50个国家由回教徒支配，这些国家是回教国或立回教为国教。

严格来说，50个国家中只有2国是采纳西方形式或民主议会制度，那就是马来西亚和土耳其。
其他国家则相当专制，他们可能有选举，但远超于我们所认识的。这些国家当中一些是拥有回教理事会，其委员也是被委任的，而他们的权势与位置一般上远远的超越了国会。

值得注意的一点是，这些国家虽然富产石油，经济却都搞得不太好；广泛来说，这些国家都不适宜投资和旅游。

很多人会以埃及和南韩为例来解释以上的论点。35年前，埃及和南韩同属收入均等国家；可是，今天的埃及的总收入却不及南韩的20%。

若要在类似马来西亚这样的多元种族国家实行断肢法，涉及的层面肯定非常广大，更会引起巨大分歧，如果只向回教徒实行断肢法，而非回教徒则奉行民事法侓，这是极其复杂与困难的工作。
目前我们已经对我国的回教法和民事法律有太多的混淆和争议，若再推行断肢法就会让原本已经存在的问题与情况更加的严重！这可从最近一些皈依回教的非马来人在办理离婚申请的案例中看到回教法和民事法侓之间的混淆与冲突，所造成的严重问题！

因此，对这些问题的了解与看法是非常的重要，也对这次的选举有极大的影响。