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Malaysian non-Muslim Cabinet members threaten resignation over hudud bill
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A sharia official beats an offender who violated sharia with a cane at the Ule Lheue Mosque in Banda Aceh, Aceh, on Dec. 28, 2015. (JP/Hotli Simanjuntak)
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argest ruling party Umno's move to allow Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party to table an amendment bill on the Islamic criminal law in the parliament has sparked backlash from the country's non-Muslim community concerned about a precedent that will eventually turn Malaysia into an Islamic state.
Several Malaysian non-Muslim ministers have voiced their frustration, and are prepared to quit their Cabinet posts if the hudud bill gets its way in the Parliament.
Among them were three Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) ministers and four deputy ministers who have vowed to block the bill at all costs, even to the extent of losing their Cabinet posts, while Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC)'s president S. Subramaniam has also said he would quit as health minister if the bill gets passed.
Several major Chinese organizations in the country have also voiced their strong objection to the bill, stressing that the Islamic criminal law is not suitable to be implemented in a multiracial secular state like Malaysia.
MCA president Liow Tiong Lai announced that his party would launch a civic campaign to get more Malaysians to defend the country's constitution and oppose Islamist party PAS' tabling of the amendment bill on hudud in the parliament.
He reiterated that MCA would take further actions to lead the Chinese community and the rest of the country in this critically important civic movement.
He said he had approached several BN component parties over the campaign in hope of securing their cooperation to work together to defend the constitution for the sake of the country's future survival.
When asked whether the campaign would include opposition parties such as DAP, Liow said the most vital issue now was to block the bill, and during such a critical moment everyone would be looking at the best solution to ensure that the objectives were met.
