ACT 355 always a threat to our secular Constitution

The 2-year episode of Act355 Amendment Bill (Hudud Bill) has exposed the frailty of secularism under the Federal Constitution, said Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen.

It has also exposed the danger of having an over-powerful Umno capable of playing around with the secularism enshrined in the Constitution based solely on its political strategic consideration.

Before Najib declared two nights ago that the Government would not adopt Hadi’s Hudud Bill, he has openly announced that the Government would adopt Hadi’s Bill as the Government Bill and tabled it in Parliament. Ahmad Zahid had also repeated such stand.

“Then, why the U-turn on the part of Najib and Ahmad Zahid on this issue two nights ago? Basically, it is based upon political strategic consideration of Umno and not about defending the Constitution. Otherwise, Najib would not have made the earlier contradictory announcement,” he said in a press statement.

Adding on, Chong said PAS currently has only 14 MPs while Umno 86 and both parties did not have more than 50 per cent of the MPs in Parliament. Chong added that whether the other BN MPs would support the Bill, despite the fact that it was tabled by the Government, remains questionable.

However, even if they did support BN in tabling the Hudud Bill, they run the risk of losing Sarawak and Sabah in the next General Elections.  This is a real risk that Najib cannot afford to take. As a result, the Hudud Bill has been postponed to another date.  But surely this is only a temporary measure. The whole issue may again be revived in another 5, 10 or 15 years when Umno becomes more powerful, stressed Chong who is also DAP state chairman.

Chong said Umno has, through its indoctrination of racism and religious bigotry in the education system, churned out more and more racists and religious bigots in the country. The import of West Malaysian Islamic religious teachers into Sarawak is just another example of such brain-washing projects of Umno on the state’s populace.

Chong pointed out that Sarawak may have objected to the implementation of hudud law today.  However, if Umno is allowed to import its ideology into Sarawak, in another 10 or 20 years, when those subject to the Umno indoctrination programs have grown of age, will the Sarawak Government continue to object to the implementation of hudud law?

That is a pertinent question, especially given that there are now more than 1,000 West Malaysia Islamic religious teachers teaching their version of Islamic values in Sarawak.

If we truly want to defend and preserve the secularism under our Federal Constitution, Umno must be made the Opposition in the coming General Elections.  It is only when Umno is made the Opposition then that it can no longer implement its hudud agenda, the statement concluded.

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Source : @ Borneo Post Online

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