PUTRAJAYA, 25 Aug 2009: The caning of 32-year-old part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno for consuming alcohol is postponed until the Home Ministry has the expertise to carry out the sentence according to syariah laws, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.
He said the Prisons Department did not have staff who were experienced to mete out the punishment according to syariah.
“I have to admit we do not have experience in this case. From the aspect of responsibility, I understand that under the country’s laws, we (the Home Ministry) are responsible; but I cannot allow it if we do not have the expertise [and] the skills, and do not follow the ways set,” Hishammuddin told reporters after chairing a meeting of national main productivity indicators leadership at his ministry here.
He said this when asked by reporters to comment on the postponement of the caning sentence for Kartika, who admitted in the Kuantan Syariah Court on 18 July to drinking alcohol at a hotel in Cherating, Pahang.
Yesterday, Pahang Religious Affairs, Dakwah, Unity and NGOs committee chairperson Datuk Mohd Safri Abdul Aziz was reported to have said the postponement was decided by Pahang Syariah Chief Judge Datuk Abdul Rahman Yunus to respect the month of Ramadan.
Hishammuddin said the Prisons Department did not have a person to cane the syariah way, as all this while there has been no requirement for that position to be created.
“As long as the Home Ministry is not ready, the sentence will not be carried out. To me, if we do not have the person to do this, how are we to carry out the sentence fairly?
“Islam says that we are to carry it out according to law and be fair. If we can have one [person to do the caning] in a day, I am ready tomorrow [to carry out the sentence],” he said.
When asked for the need to have a syariah prison to handle syariah cases and sentences, Hishammuddin said it was not required now. — Bernama
CURMUDGEON, SUBANG JAYA says
Forget about this “shariah” way of flogging.
The whole notion is simply unconscionable.
Any politician who does not have the character and courage to say so forfeits his or her human credibility, is an enemy of human dignity.
To offend human dignity is to offend our Creator. This morsel of basic theology overrides all religious jurisprudential “niceties”, as well as all vengeful “not-so-niceties”.
Whipping, any kind of whipping (with a rotan or by the more “gently instructive” shariah method) is appalling. Why not say so?
More, does not any responsible politician give a moment’s thought to the terrible ordeal, the great mental anguish and anxiety and dread, that Ms Kartika has been put through, to which anybody in that situation is inevitably made subject?
Why can’t any politican simply say that – and dare the shariah zealots and their political wedge-driving supporters in both PAS and Umno to challenge them?
It is time, it has long been more than time, for people, especially the nation’s responsible leaders and politicians, to call this disgraceful, cynical bluff.
tkwah says
Why postpone or try find a way out of executing the caning punishment? Wouldn’t this create an impression that the application of syariah law may be quite “cumbersome” in the 21st century? After all, it was wise people who sought, passed and approved the law. Do implement syariah law to the letter on all Muslims, and stop making those law-makers and syariah law proponents appear silly!
It would do the country good, especially if people who take bribes get their hand chopped off. On the same note, imagine a live telecast of the Perhimpunan Agung of the Greatest Party of Malaysia, where we would be able to see a great majority of leaders raise their arms (sans hands of course)!
noble way says
Please enlighten me what the ‘syariah way’ is, how come there is no Muslim religious leader who has practised this syariah way? Is this a new way ? How come Hishamuddin being a Muslim leader, doubts if they will do the canning in a syariah way? You mean in the syariah court, there are books and books of rules, but just theories and [they] need Kartika to be the guinea pig for the testing of the syariah law and experimentation? What is the control experiment then?