It is unbelievable that the agenda of religious imposition such as to uphold Islamic law in this country manages to get full support from the rest due to democratic practices and ‘sharing power’ concepts that we have inherited since our forefathers’ time.

In this regard, the action made by Marang MP YB Abdul Hadi Awang by tabling a motion to introduce a private member’s bill in the Parliament has stoked anxiety and triggered dispute among people.

As a person who has a legal background, I feel responsible to point out my personal view on this issue even though I am currently away from my desk. More importantly, I’m trying to be as fair as possible in drawing up some guidelines as I don’t want to dampen the PAS leaders’ spirit and enthusiasm to empower the Shariah Courts.

Generally, the Syariah Courts in Malaysia have a limited jurisdiction only over Muslims in the matters of family law and religious observances. Furthermore, The Shariah Courts Act (Criminal Jurisdiction) 1965 has limited the power of Shariah Courts to impose punishments not exceeding three years imprisonment, RM5,000 in fines and six strokes of the cane.

The only amendment to standardise the sentences was made in 1984, hence in view of this, the effort to empower Shariah Courts should be lauded since the limitation is utterly irrelevant.

Nevertheless, the proposed empowerment of the Shariah Courts’ jurisdiction as stipulated in the bill should be reviewed to make it compatible with the spirit of democracy and the rule of law and is not perceived as paving the way for the implementation of hudud once it is eventually passed. Having said that, it should be focused on aims to preserve the people’s rights and reduce inefficiency in the Shariah judicial system.

Perhaps the parties concerned should learn from the expert legal draftsmen such as the late Professor Ahmad Ibrahim who has gone down in history as a bright litigant who had made the syariah system to be well-established in 1988 when by his efforts, the amendment of Article 121 (1A) of Federal Constitution overwhelmingly passed by Parliament, which provides exclusive jurisdictions to the Shariah Courts without intervention from the Civil Court.

In view of this, the empowerment of the Shariah Courts should be taken in steps and the enhancement of its jurisdiction should be led by legal experts via in-depth discussion and dialogue. The recent enhancement of the Shariah Court power proposed by such a motion is too wide, unnecessary and open for misinterpretations.

Moreover, it triggered adverse perception among society on the credibility of Shariah Court Judges to impose sentences of 100 years of imprisonment or even 500 strokes of the cane for instance, as it’s pretty steep learning curve when you are thrown into a job with no prior experience.

In a nutshell, I view that the intention and quest to empower the Shariah Courts is high time and deserves to get support from the public particularly among the Muslim and to this end, there is a need to form an independent committee consisting of stakeholders from academicians and civil society from the entire range of fields to review it thoroughly to ensure this motion will be passed by Parliament with certain guidelines.