Datuk Zaid Ibrahim

KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 — Former Cabinet minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said today that Malays are doomed to fail in their own country because they are afraid to think straight, especially in the contentious public debate over the proposed implementation of hudud.

Zaid, a vocal critic of the Islamic penal code, also took a swipe at the leadership of both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) by saying the leaders of both coalitions had kept relatively quiet because “Putrajaya is everything to them.”

“I am now convinced that the Malays are doomed to fail in their own country. This has little to do with their propensity to stab one another in the back while seeking the top positions, or with what the British did to them or to Malaya.

“It is not because the Chinese and Indians have taken the best out of the country, or have denied them their legitimate rights. The Malays are doomed because they do not think! They are afraid to think straight,” Zaid wrote in his blog today.

“Look at the debates on hudud and you can see why the Malays are doomed.”

Sarcastically citing MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai as a spokesman of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Zaid said it appeared that even the Umno president had to “play ball” with PAS because “it’s inconceivable for any good Muslim to be seen to oppose the introduction of hudud.”

“If a Malay who holds the top post in the country can be overwhelmed by such political trickery, then what hope do we have?

“Is Liow and the PM telling us that they have no answer to an old political gambit (50 years old to be exact)?” he wrote.

PAS has been seeking to form an Islamic state since the party’s formation in the 1950s by the ulama faction of Umno.

In 1993, the PAS state government passed the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II, allowing it to impose the strict Islamic penal code in the state. But the laws have not been implemented.

PAS is now looking for parliamentary approval to implement hudud. It plans to put forward two private members’ bills in parliament. One seeks approval for punishments including whipping, stoning and amputation while the other seeks to empower Shariah courts to mete out the sentences.

According to the Shariah Courts (Criminal) Jurisdiction Act 1965, the Islamic court cannot sentence offenders to more than three years in jail or fine them more than RM5,000. It also cannot sentence offenders to be whipped more than 6 times.

Umno leaders have said they have no objections to the implementation of hudud and have constantly challenged PAS to try to introduce the law.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has said the time was not right for such laws, but has not voiced any outright objection.

The DAP has been the most vocal critic of hudud, along with the MCA, although the BN party has refused to directly criticise its partner Umno over the matter.

In his blog, Zaid also criticised the formation of a special committee by the federal government to study how to implement hudud.

“Now these non-thinking Malays have formed a committee, comprising scholars who are supposedly steeped in Islamic jurisprudence, to find ways to implement hudud in Kelantan.

“We know this is just a political ploy because there are no scholars steeped in hudud. Even in countries where hudud is allegedly used, no one knows the basis of the decisions made by the jurists of that country.

“Do we truly believe that if the person accused of theft is related to the Saudi king or knows Imam Khomeini, he would suffer amputation? Or that a member of the royalty who downs gin and tonic cocktails would be prosecuted? Or on what basis do they determine the quality of the witness who complained of the illicit sexual tryst?” he asked.

The problem with a legal system not used widely was that it is shrouded in secrecy, Zaid said, asking, “that’s the system we want to emulate?”

“The clever scholars will have no answers to these questions; the most they can do is ridicule people like me. All this fanfare is going to waste a lot taxpayers’ money.”

The former minister also wondered if the country would therefore have different sets of Shariah-based penal laws — one for Muslims in Kelantan, while the Muslims in other states are spared.