G25 meets state Rulers in bid to review Islamic laws

Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin, spokesperson for the group of eminent Malays, says they plan to meet with menteris besar and chief ministers after their dialogue sessions with state rulers. – The Malaysian Insider pic, March 14, 2015.The G25, the group of prominent Malays who are seeking a review of Islamic laws, have met several state Rulers to express their concern over the actions of religious authorities who have exceeded their powers conferred in the Federal Constitution, its spokesman Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin said.

The group will continue to seek meetings with other Malay Rulers and the Yang Di Pertuan Agong, who is the head of Islam in Sabah, Sarawak, Malacca, Penang and the Federal Territories.

"So far we have had very good discussion but the rulers cannot publicly agree with us because they are constitutional monarchs," she said.

Noor Faridah said the monarchs whoM they had met so far had also encouraged them to speak to all the other rulers because this matter could be raised in one of their meetings.

"It could be tabled in the Conference of Rulers and the decision has to be unanimous. All it takes is for one ruler to say no and it will be scuttled," she said.

"We need to sensitise them about what was done under their name by the religious authorities, particularly the enforcement agencies," she said after delivering a talk entitled "Restoring Faith in Our Constitution".

The event was organised by legal firm Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill at the Royal Lake Club in Kuala Lumpur last night.

She said the group also planned to have dialogue sessions with menteris besar and chief ministers.

Citing examples, Noor Farida said religious enforcement agencies had acted against Muslims on things like gambling when there were Federal laws, and also invaded the privacy of individuals through moral policing.

She said incidents like body snatching, seizure of religious books and materials, unilateral conversion and custody disputes also affected non-Muslims and put the Islamic religion in bad light.

"States are allowed to pass enactments on 26 subject matters and anything beyond that is a violation of the constitution," she said.

The group attracted wide public attention last December in asking for a rational dialogue on Islam in an open letter.

It had had decried the "lack of clarity and understanding" on the place of Islam within Malaysia's constitutional democracy, as well as a "serious breakdown of federal-state division of powers, both in the areas of civil and criminal jurisdictions".

The group also expressed concern at how religious authorities were "asserting authority beyond their jurisdiction", and that fatwa issued had violated the Federal Constitution as well as the consultative process.

Besides Noor Farida, the signatories of the 19-paragraph letter comprises former high-ranking civil servants, including directors-general, secretaries-general, ambassadors and prominent individuals, all of whom are Malays.

The group has now expanded to 44 members.

Noor Faridah said there was also an attempt to rewrite the constitution through Shariah enactments that were passed by the state assemblies when these state laws were in conflict with the constitution.

"The constitution is further violated when the civil court judges abdicate their duties," she said.

Noor Faridah said it had submitted the names of Shariah and constitutional law experts to Putrajaya to review Islamic penal laws.

"This is one of our main proposals because there is an urgent need for clarification of the position of Shariah law within the constitution and in line with Islamic principles of justice," he added.

- TMI