The Hudud controversy in contemporary Malaysia: A study of its proposed implementation in Kelantan and Terengganu

Islam is more than a religion, it encompasses faith, culture, law and the social order.Islam proposes a society of righteousness and justice. Criminal behavior is not tolerated in the Islamic order of society.Criminal behavior is breach of God’s sovereignty, hence stiffer penalties are prescribed.This paper explores and examines Hudud punishments in Islamic penal system, and is specifically purposed to analyse the proposed actualisation of the Hudud law in the two Malay-Muslim dominated states of Kelantan and Terengganu in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.This paper is legal normative with descriptive qualitative approach on both primary and secondary resources in order to obtain a judicial view of the subject matter by employing legal-theoretical and comparative analysis. In Malaysia, the Syariah Criminal Enactment (II) 1993 of Kelantan and the Syariah Criminal Enactment 2003 of Terengganu (as proposed by PAS) allow the application of Hudud laws into the above mentioned states.However, the enforcement of the above in both these states have been suspended indefinitely as UMNO claims these laws are inconsistent with the Federal Constitution - the supreme law of the Federation. This is because the enactment of penal laws are within the jurisdiction of the federal authority and not the state.Furthermore, the criminal jurisdiction of the Syariah Court has been restricted by the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, a federal law.The arguments in relation to the implementation of Hudud laws in Malaysia is an ongoing politicaldispute between PAS and UMNO even to the present moment.PAS had proposed and conceived the idea on the actualization of Hudud in the states of Kelantan and Terengganu without consultation or input from the federal government.Furthermore, it is submitted that the Hudud introduced by these two states were done hastily and more for political gains than for its importance for the need for it.Upon examining the facts related, this paper arrives at a point where it confirms the unsuitability on the actualization of the Hudud law presently not only in Kelantan and Terengganu but in contemporary Malaysia as a whole. Nevertheless, if at all the Hudud were to be taken as a new model for the judiciary in Malaysia, it has to be re-evaluated and appraised on its limitations as well as to incorporate the Malaysian elements into it; taking the aspect of social make-up of the population and the various cultures that exist alongside the Muslim in order to make it more attuned to a Malaysian society. Equitably, it must be applied to all Muslims and non-Muslims alike