International consultancy firms need not go far to select suitable candidates for its forecasting work. Malaysia has lots of them. It has been proven before when the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill was passed, the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) and now the private member’s bill on Syariah Court amendments.

Look at the scenarios painted on the likely outcome - be it based on facts or just gut (intuitive) feeling. There are loads of them.

In Islamic criminal jurisprudence, hudud means ‘limits’. It includes crimes specified in the Quran and considered crimes against God whose punishment is fixed in the Quran and the Hadiths. However, Allah SWT is the Gracious and the Merciful and this is shown in the following:

“The punishment for those who fight God and His Messenger, and strive to spread corruption on earth, is that they be killed, or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, or be banished from the land. That is to disgrace them in this life; and in the Hereafter they will have a terrible punishment”. (Quran, Al-Ma’idah 5:33)

“Except for those who repent before you apprehend them. So know that God is Forgiving and Merciful”. (Quran, Al-Ma’idah 5:34)

There are provisions for reformation or repentence as shown above.

This article is not aimed to discuss on hudud but to have a feel on how we Malaysians think. Is it based on belief, knowledge, Schema, information or emotional reasoning? We do not need divergent thinkers (exaggerating). I think we need lateral (out-of-the-box) and inspirational (emergent) thinkers.

One day we have this hue and cry about hudud being ancient, cruel and outdated laws and punishments and do not have any place in our modern, moderate, multiracial and multi-religious Malaysian society. There is also a question whether countries which practice hudud is worthy of emulation?

The next day news about Richard Huckle surfaced. A man who spent several years integrating himself into the community which he lived in and making himself a trusted figure. But he is a child abuser terrorising almost 200 children.

A London court handed 22 life sentences after he pleaded guilty to 71 child abuse offenses. A woman in the public gallery shouted: “1,000 deaths is too good for you.”

Malaysians then reacted like ‘100 lashes’ for him in Malaysia, “burn him alive”, urgings for castration, charging him here, etc. The chairperson of Malaysia’s Voice of the Children asked and answered herself, “Is this justice? No.” Suddenly, we were told about the absence of a national sex offenders registry and making child pornography and child sexual abuse severe crimes with heavy penalties.

Are these urgings not ancient, cruel and outdated punishments? Does it have any place in our modern, moderate, multiracial and multi-religious Malaysian society?

So how do we Malaysians think? One day we dislike harsh punishments and the next day we urge/desire for it.

What would their reactions and urgings be if it happened to one of their family members or they themselves?

Delay in taking action

Another point to look at is the delay in taking appropriate actions by the authorities. Granted that there were not much information given by British officials on this case in November 2014. According to a leader from an Indian community that Huckle frequented, the Malaysian police visited them for the first time only recently.

I guess there were more pressing matters for the authorities to attend to.

There are many other examples where we hear a lot of noise when things really got out of hand like the Cameron Highlands landslide and bauxite mining. Did we hear of the perpetrators being brought to face justice?

On hindsight, the most glaring issue is the failure of our authorities to detect Huckle over nine years.

Say we have a national sex offenders registry, would it be put to good use? There are many instances where authorities/departments work in silos and each does not take responsibility. As pointed out earlier, we need lateral and inspirational thinkers and not emotional thinkers who are reactive and not proactive in our various departments/agencies.

God really work in mysterious ways. There was this Malaysian scholar who was convicted for possession of more than 30,000 images of child pornography in Britain last year and jailed for nine months

I would like to touch a bit on this hudud issue from the perspective of the Malays who oppose. Why so much fuss about hudud when compared to the ‘akad nikah’, there is this fuss on strict adherence to be in one breath...

Will this hudud prospect hurt or hinder stronger social cohesion and national unity?

In our fairly intellectually-deficient society including politicians, I would leave it to the experts to have intellectual discourse on this subject and produce something that is amenable.