Antara Akta, Aqidah dan Akal

 

As published in The Nut Graph

 

Kes Kartika Sari Dewi Sukarno yang disabit bersalah kerana meminum arak telah menimbulkan pelbagai reaksi di kalangan umat Islam di Malaysia. Merujuk kepada artikel-artikel terbitan akhbar arus perdana khususnya, ramai yang menyokong hukuman maksima yang diputuskan oleh Mahkamah Shari’a Pahang terhadap Kartika iaitu denda sebanyak RM5,000 dan enam kali sebatan.

 

Walaubagaimanapun, terdapat juga pihak-pihak lain seperti Joint Action Group [JAG] dan Sisters in Islam [SIS] yang memprotes keputusan Mahkamah tersebut. Mereka berpendapat bahawa hukuman maksima yang diputuskan oleh Mahkamah Syari’a Pahang adalah tidak adil memandangkan Kartika merupakan pesalah kali pertama, dan beliau juga telah mengaku bersalah atas perbuatannya.   

 

JAG dan SIS juga memprotes apabila rayuan yang difailkan oleh SIS sebagai pihak ketiga yang berkepentingan di dalam kes Kartika ditolak tanpa apa-apa sebab oleh Penolong Pendaftar Mahkamah Shari’a di Kuantan. Selain daripada itu, pelbagai lagi persoalan dibangkitkan, antaranya bidangkuasa Mahkamah Shari’a Pahang yang telah memberikan arahan supaya sebuah penjara di Selangor menjalankan hukuman rotan terhadap Kartika sungguhpun Peraturan Penjara [2000] melarang hukuman sebat dikenakan ke atas kaum wanita.

 

Samada kita setuju atau tidak dengan pendirian JAG dan SIS, tindakan mereka dalam menyuarakan pendirian bukanlah sesuatu yang luar biasa dalam amalan masyarakat yang bertamadun. Tambahan lagi, persoalan yang telah mereka kemukakan adalah logik dan patut dijawab oleh pihak-pihak yang berkenaan kerana ia secara tidak langsung melibatkan seluruh rakyat Malaysia yang beragama Islam. Bukan itu sahaja, proses ini penting untuk menegakkan integriti institusi kehakiman Shari’a Malaysia.

 

Tindakan memfailkan rayuan pihak ketiga di mahkamah juga bukan sesuatu yang luar biasa dalam proses perundangan, melainkan jika sistem perundangan Shari’a di Malaysia dianggap sebagai satu sistem yang luar biasa. Di sini, timbul pula persoalan “luar biasa” dalam ertikata apa – istimewa atau pelik? Jika istimewa, ertinya sistem itu tentulah yang paling rasional, adil dan telus prosesnya, selaras dengan Shari’a Islam.

 

Akan tetapi, majoriti golongan umat Islam begitu marah dengan tindakan yang diambil oleh JAG dan SIS seolah-oleh pertubuhan-pertubuhan ini ingin menghalalkan sesuatu yang haram. Kata mereka, siapalah JAG ataupun SIS untuk menyoal keputusan mahkamah sedangkan Kartika sendiri menerima hukuman yang dikenakan terhadap beliau tanpa apa-apa bantahan.

 

Mereka bersungguh-sungguh mempertahankan prosedur yang digunapakai oleh Mahkamah Shari’a Pahang dalam kes ini dan menyokong hukuman maksima yang dijatuhkan ke atas Kartika. Tetapi mereka ini mungkin tidak sedar implikasi jangka masa panjang keputusan kes Kartika di mana ia boleh digunakan sebagai rujukan dalam kes-kes pesalah kali pertama yang lain pada masa hadapan.

 

Sebaliknya, JAG dan SIS dituduh jahil dalam hukum-hukam Islam, mencabar kedudukan DYMM Yang di-Pertuan Agong sebagai ketua agama Islam negara dan menggugat perpaduan umat Islam di Malaysia. Justeru, kerajaan didesak mengambil langkah membubarkan kedua-dua organisasi tersebut dan mendakwa mereka di bawah Akta Hasutan. Ironinya, Akta Hasutan terletak di bawah bidangkuasa Mahkamah Sivil tetapi mahu digunakan ke atas pemprotes keputusan Mahkamah Shari’a.

 

Merujuk kembali kepada kenyataan-kenyataan yang dikeluarkan oleh JAG dan SIS berkenaan kes ini, tiada terjumpa apa-apa usul yang menghasut umat Islam di Malaysia untuk bertelagah antara satu sama lain. Maka, tuduhan bahawa mereka mahu memecah-belahkan umat Islam di negara ini tidak berasas.

 

Bekenaan bantahan hukuman maksima terhadap Kartika dan rayuan rasmi pihak ketiga oleh SIS, ini pula ditafsir sebagai perbuatan khianat yang mencabar kedudukan DYMM Tuanku sebagai ketua agama Islam di Malaysia. Malangnya mengikut logik ini setiap rayuan kes dalam kedua-dua mahkamah Shari’a dan Sivil boleh dikatakan sebagai tindakan mengkhianati DYMM Tuanku.

 

Jika dikaji semula kenyataan golongan umat Islam yang mengecam tindakan JAG dan SIS dalam hal ini, jelas terdapat unsur hipokrasi. Contohnya, tiada sesiapapun dari golongan ini yang menggesa agar Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, atau Menteri Wanita, Keluarga dan Masyarakat, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, didakwa di bawah Akta Hasutan atas gesaan mereka agar Kartika memfail rayuan ke atas keputusan Mahkamah Shari’a Pahang.

 

Malah, Shahrizat sendiri berkata mengikut sistem perundangan Shari’a di Malaysia SIS berhak memfail rayuan sebagai pihak ketiga yang berkepentingan. Ini hakikat proses perundangan Shari’a negara tetapi ada golongan-golongan tertentu yang mahu menafikan hak ini kepada pihak lain.

 

Rang undang-undang Shari’a di Malaysia pula dinobatkan sebagai hukum mutlak Allah SWT dan barang sesiapa yang menyoal perlaksanaannya dianggap sebagai jahil dan munafik. Apakah ini pendirian yang sah atau masuk akal, sedangkan proses penggubalan undang-undang Shari’a negara dibentang dan dibahas terlebih dahulu di Parlimen atau Dewan Undangan Negeri sebelum ia digazet?

 

Tambah lagi, proses ini melibatkan ahli-ahli Yang Berhormat yang berbilang kaum dan agama yang dipilih oleh rakyat biasa. Maka, tuduhan terhadap pihak-pihak yang menyoal perlaksanaan undang-undang Shari’a di Malaysia sebagai orang-orang yang jahil dan munafik amat keterlaluan dan tidak masuk akal memandangkan proses pengubalan undang-undang Shari’a secara lazimnya inklusif pelbagai pihak.

 

Sehingga kini dianggarkan bahawa lebih kurang 50 laporan polis telah difail terhadap JAG atau SIS atas tindakan mereka bersuara berkenaan kes Kartika. Lebih teruk lagi, di alam siber mereka yang kononnya mengaku memperjuangkan kesucian Islam dan menuduh pihak lain sebagai munafik menggunakan kata-kata yang kesat dan kotor dalam membuat hujah-hujah mereka.

 

Sementara itu kerajaan melalui menterinya Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein telah menjamin hukuman sebatan ke atas Kartika akan dilaksanakan secara lembut dan tidak menyakiti tubuh badanya. Ada juga pihak yang mengambil inisiatif mengadakan “roadshow” demonstrasi sebatan lembut yang bakal dilaksanakan. Jika tidak pedih tubuh badan disebat maka peritlah maruah disarkaskan.

Hari ini Kartika masih lagi menunggu untuk disebat. Memandangkan beliau sendiri sudah mengaku insaf dengan perbuatannya, maka apa sebenarnya tujuan hukuman ini dilanjutkan? Apa pula pengajaran yang boleh diambil oleh umat Islam di Malaysia sedangkan hukuman tersebut akan dilaksanakan di dalam kurungan penjara dan bukan di khalayak ramai sepertimana yang dituntut Kartika sendiri?

 

 

there’s still hope in this neck of the woods, or A Malaysian Tail

 

“Mama dengar bunyi dekat bawah, like someone trying to open the sliding door. balik!” i rushed home after the call from my mother late Wednesday night, worried that someone was trying to break into our home.

 

my family has lived in Shah Alam for 24 years and for the most part, life has been peaceful. we are very close to our neighbours and friendly with folks in the local shops and market. we moved to Shah Alam when there were no McDonald’s and not a single traffic light. the site of the Concorde Hotel was still a plantation and the “Blue Mosque” was under construction.

 

today, we are no longer a town but a city. and apparently, Shah Alam has the country’s largest concentration of affluent middle-class “Bumiputras”. ideally that should mean sophistication and civility. but, the recent anti-temple cow-head protest was inspired and organised by our own folk.

 

we have never before seen such incivility in Shah Alam. who are these people, really? how is it they can exist among us? how did they come to exist at all?

 

these were questions i asked myself as i drove past the Selangor State Secretariat building, after my mother’s distressed call. but my thoughts were interrupted as i turned the corner into our neighbourhood and saw a motorcycle parked by the roadside.

 

a young man was squatting in front of my neighbour’s gate. it was close to 2 a.m. and my suspicious urban mind immediately thought, “ommigod! you a*sehole burglar! kantoi! i got you now!” i pulled up right next to him and wound my window down half way. “awak buat apa tu?!” i barked at him, trying to conceal my own fear.

 

the young man took off his helmet and pointed to something in front of him. “kucing ini kena langgar …” he said in a strong Sabahan accent. i looked at the cat and to my horror it was Orange Boy Cat, the stray that visits us regularly to eat our cats’ food. his face was badly injured and he was breathing very fast. clearly he was in severe pain.

 

someone had hit the cat and left it lying in the middle of the road. the young man was riding home on his motorcycle when he saw the cat lying there. he had rescued the cat from further misfortune by placing him by the roadside. my first instinct was to call my vet friend, Kavita, for advice.

 

i then left the young man, Daryl, and the cat for a few minutes while i went home to check on the house to make sure everything was okay, and got a small cage for the cat to rest in safely. i thought to myself, “Almighty, cucurilah rahmat on Daryl for his compassion! and bagilah balasan yang setimpal padahnya to the cruel monster who ran over the cat and sped away!”

 

there really was nothing Daryl could do at that hour except sit there to accompany the poor animal. it was so heartening to see such compassion for a helpless creature of God, and just 600 metres away from the State Secretariat building where the group of callous bigots paraded with a cow’s head earlier this Ramadhan.

 

Daryl volunteered to nurse the cat at his flat where he lived with his brother, Kenny. the next day, the 3 of us took our whiskered friend to see the vet.

 

today, a week after the accident and on Malaysia Day, i am pleased to report that Orange Boy Cat is recovering well at the clinic. his jaw is broken and his leg is slightly screwed up, but he will be okay. soon he will be moving in with his new Sabahan family, Daryl and Kenny.

 

there are still decent people living in Shah Alam after all. thank you boys for giving us hope.

 

 

The Beautiful Malay [A participant's comment]

 

As published in The People’s Parliament

 

Assalamu’alaikum Encik Haris and readers.

 

i contemplated writing this comment in Malay but i want to be understood properly by your readers so i’ve decided to write this in English.

 

firstly, thank you Encik Haris for documenting the visit which was initiated and attended by private citizens of Malaysia. and might i add, with the exception of my beloved mother and a number of gentlemen, the group was made up of young people. 

 

reading some of the comments here, it sounds as though until this post was published there were no decent “Malays” left in this country. so much so that our visit to the temple comes as such a pleasant surprise to many of your readers here – to the point of tears. imagine if you didn’t publish this post. we would all be left in our bigoted belief that the vast majority of Malays/Muslims in our country are arrogant and intolerant.

 

one of your commentors even said that it is “so rare that Malays come out of their way to lend a hand to non Malays”. perhaps such people should socialise a bit more and not depend on newspapers and blogs for generalised “truths” on how members of other races behave.

 

we would like to think of ourselves as intellectual and [correction: sophisticated] for our ability to carefully identify all the political culprits who are responsible for the sorry state of our perpaduan today. but we, the Rakyat, are ourselves too self-righteous to even admit that WE are the most responsible party in this mess. we let this happen.

 

bless the internet for today we have an avenue to share information and discuss more openly. but at the same time, cyberspace has become a place for thousands of Malaysians to become yea and nay sayers without doing much else.

 

if you really like what you see here, get your own little group together and visit your neighbourhood’s places of worship and offer a hand shake. and yes, that should include your neighbourhood mosque or surau. if you want to bring a buah tangan to these places of worship but you’re not sure what’s appropriate, bring something safe. we brought flowers. and jelly.

 

we don’t always have to move in big groups to make our point. and we certainly cannot afford to wait for another incident to happen before we make our move.

 

Wassalam.

 

——————————————————————————————

 

* The beautiful Malay on The People’s Parliament.

 

Honouring the Malaysian woman

 

Rejected by newspaper editor

 

In 1965 a Javanese teenager found herself commuting back and forth the lonely trunk road between her home in Seremban and Kuala Lumpur. She was only 17 and without a driver’s licence. Typically, she would be accompanied by her mother, two younger brothers and a Tiffin carrier of home cooked food for her sick father at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital.

 

Life was exhausting growing up taking care of younger siblings, live-in relatives and a mother who was behaving erratically possibly due to menopause – though that would have been a huge mystery back then. Yet, she would sit for her High School Certificate exams and pass with impressive grades.

 

Today, a teenager like her who is smart and starred in a state youth hockey team would probably enrol in a good university. However, that was not the case for her. Her family needed care and her commitment was to them. Unlike some of her brothers who got the opportunity to study all the way in England, the young girl was grounded at home.

 

But what would she do for a living without the prestige of a college diploma? She would do wonders.

 

She was bold, intelligent and was blessed with a flare for writing both in English and Malay. With encouragement from the late A. Samad Ismail she became a cadet reporter. It was a rough job for a young woman fresh out of school. The press room was patriarchal, rowdy and no curse word was out of earshot. She became one of the first few women reporters in Malaysia and certainly one of the first few women reporters to cover crime news. But the tough nature of the job only prepared her for greater things in life.

 

At the age of 21, she was chosen by the Australian Rotary Club to participate in a cultural exchange programme. For several months she travelled and lived with Australian families around the Riverina region playing the role of a young Malaysian ambassador. Mayors and government officials would admire the way the young reporter carried herself and the positive image of Malaysia she represented. The Australian press would sing praises of her and the goodwill she extended on behalf of her country.

 

Her experience and talent would one day secure her a position at the esteemed Financial Times of London. How proud a Malaysian she was every time the newspaper published her by-line. Here was a hardworking young Malaysian who was truly “glokal” long before Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak invented the word.

 

But her service to her country was mostly accomplished at home. In 1973, she became the 245th employee of the newly established Malaysian Airlines System (MAS). The airline was a symbol of independence and pride in post-Merdeka Malaysia. Like her contemporaries, she put in a lot of love and hard work for the airline to take off.

 

MAS had just been created following the closure of the Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (MSA). Former MSA staff had to be reassigned, assets around the world had to be dissolved and a new Malaysian identity had to be created for MAS. She was one of those dedicated staff who helped nurse and nurture our national carrier in its teething days. And like those of her time, she would now cringe in despair whenever news of loss and abuse in the airline surfaced.

 

This young woman was well on her way to making a life for herself. But that did not mean her childhood “career” was over. She still had to dedicate time and energy everyday to clean the house and manually giling (ground) meal ingredients for her mother who endlessly received visitors. This she did despite having a full time job.

 

But it was this tough life that gave her the strength and courage to start her own business at the age of 28. Her small company, assisted by close friends and family, would organise Malaysia’s first international motor show which also featured classic cars from the Sultan of Selangor’s garage. Despite all the funds made available to young entrepreneurs today, not many below the age of 30 can claim the same glory as this woman who did not even have the privilege of a tertiary education.

 

Her hard work and perseverance paid off and she eventually blossomed into a respected corporate figure in the telecommunications industry. She had done wonders for her family and country, and had helped paved the way for professional women who came after her. Most importantly, she did it sincerely and selflessly.

 

Her proudest moment however, was the day she stood on a sidewalk as she watched the eldest of her three daughters march the streets of Wellington, New Zealand dressed in a graduation gown and a mortarboard on her head.

 

To this woman, my mother, and other Malaysian women like her, I wish you happy anniversary. Your daughters are proud of you and are eternally grateful for your sacrifices.

 

Thank you for making Malaysia a better place for us. 

  

no! yes …

 

so you walked into a bookstore and thought, “okay, i could do me some educationment on the Russian Revolution.”

 

but you ain’t got all the time in the world, right? which is just about how long it requires to understand the topic. so you pick up a small book by S. A. Smith … and learnt your lession: never ever read anything written by a Smith. or about the Russian Revolution. that said, the The Russian Revolution: A Very Short Introduction is a piss shitty book and if you think you’re gonna be enlightened by reading this book, you’re f*cking wrong. it is messy and you’ll know by page 3 Smith is self-absorbed wanker.

 

on the other hand, there’s Currie’s God is Dead. now, this is about the nicest thing said about any book thus far at this address. we think the book is a f*cking jam. make that gem.

 

it’s a quick read, really but maybe best to station it on the throne for poop reading in order that the book lasts. you know, so you don’t finish it in one go. it’s a simple strategy for those romantics who don’t look forward to finishing good books. but Currie you will finish, yessum. God appearing in the form of a Sudanese woman is f*cking brilliant, of course. and then it gets dark and disturbing. and then you finish the book and think, “goddamn, that was fun …”