KUALA LUMPUR: PSM has dismissed MIC as being simplistic in its reasoning when it said it would tolerate a push for stricter shariah criminal laws.
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Dr Michael Jeyakumar, the socialist party’s chairman, said MIC president S Vigneswaran was ignoring a lot of unsettled issues when he said he saw no problem with Umno making a political pact with PAS even if it means the dominant Barisan Nasional partner is now actively supporting PAS’ call for harsh Islamic laws.
Jeyakumar spoke of issues such as religious conversions and the use of “Allah” for “God the Father” in Malay-language bibles.
“These issues are causing friction in our society and we don’t seem to have a solution,” he told FMT. “There needs to be solutions to these before we can move forward with hudud laws.”
Vigneswaran, speaking to reporters yesterday, also said MIC was not against amending the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act, which will pave the way for hudud to be enforced in Malaysia.
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“The Federal Constitution takes care of the non-Muslims and there’s nothing wrong with it as Islam has nothing to do with the non-Muslims,” the MIC president said.
But Jeyakumar said non-Muslims were anxious over unsettled issues, and he mentioned as an example the difficulty encountered by Muslims intending to leave Islam.
He said there was still no proper mechanism for solving such issues.
He also said he feared that Umno and PAS would worsen the complications in race relations through their politicisation of hudud in the hope of gaining votes. – FMT