NO HUDUD WITHOUT PRIOR UNDERSTANDING?
By: Ustaz Salman Zainal Abidn
I read an article a few days ago that caught my attention. It was about a statement made by a professor from Majlis Professor Negara (MPN) whereby he insisted that hudud law must not be implemented in Malaysia until the people understands it well. At a glance, this statement sounds true. However, if I could ask the professor, if all Malaysians understand the current law which is being implemented in Malaysia since decades ago? Undoubtedly, the answer is no. So, could anyone dare to say that the current law must be temporarily suspended because most people have not yet understand about that law? No people with the right sense would say that.
Decades ago, most Malaysian hardly believed that we could afford to establish Bank Islam in which all operational finance system must be in compliance to the Syariah law. The reason being the idea was very alien – at least in this region - and it was impossible to introduce Islamic finance product within the domain of the conventional banking system. Nevertheless, after a while, not only Bank Islam has attracted non-Muslim investors, but almost all financial Institutions in Malaysia have special operational counter based on Islamic financial system.
The same is true with the Hudud law. It has been proven that conventional crime law has lost its capability to curb criminal activities. In fact, all sorts of crimes in Malaysia have been increasing year after year. So, the question is why not the Government, law makers and politicians turn to Syariah law? Who knows, it might be a good solution?
