PAS' claims that the Syariah Criminal Bill in Terengganu will deter crimes like theft and robbery by amputating hands of criminals require serious rethinking and soul searching.

Hudud (Islamic penal code) failed to stop the massive squandering of petroleum revenues in spite of its widespread implementation in the Middle East. The powers that be, famed for their vulgar display of wealth the world over, were not deterred by hudud in squandering the wealth of the land instead of investing in sound economic development.

Today, the per capita income in the petroleum producing nations is only one-third than what it was previously in the late 1970s. Economic research has demonstrated an inverse relationship between petroleum dollars and economic development for these nations.

In plain English, the more the petroleum dollars, the lesser the development in the Middle East. Of bigger concern is that petroleum accounts for approximately 98 per cent of these nations' revenue.

With the advent of globalisation, nations in the Middle East with underdeveloped infrastructure and human capital can expect to be even more marginalised when markets and finance are liberalised.

Hudud neither prevented nor deterred the exodus of state revenues that could have been used to develop these Islamic nations where presently female illiteracy remains rampant.

Remember, illiterates cannot possibly read the holy Quran. Hence, the simplistic notion that amputating hands will deter crime is not quite accurate and rather misleading since it failed to stop the greatest crime in the Middle East: the impoverishment of its land and people, the majority of whom are Muslims.