91.7 percent of people in Kelantan in support of hudud - Survey

Almost 91.7 percent of the people in Kelantan are in support of the implementation of the Syariah law or hudud in the state, said Hudud Technical Committee member, Dr Azhar Abdullah.

In a report by Malaysiakini, Dr Azhar said that a survey was done among the people in the state last year.

“We did a survey using text messages to the people in Kelantan where almost 77 thousand SMS were sent to respondents.

“The question asked to the respondents is ‘should Kelantan continue or not (hudud). We sent the question to all the 29 constituencies via SMS and the result showed 91.7 percent in support of it,” Dr Azhar was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini.

Speaking at a hudud forum organised by the Universiti Malaya Islamic Students Organisation on Wednesday night, Dr Azhar said that the survey reflected the peoples’ desire for the implementation of hudud law.

He said that the passing of the amendment of the hudud bill in Kelantan showed that the state was moving forward which in turn is triggering various reaction.

“This is a proactive move by Kelantan, with this chance we have the spirit to venture into something that we have not done in Malaysia.

“Since the independence, we have to admit that we never had a hudud law. So we have opened a new chapter in our legislation for us to discuss an issue which we have never brought forward,” he said.

He explained that Kelantan will follow the parliamentary democracy process and maintain the federalism spirit in upholding the hudud law.

Apart from Dr Azhar, the forum was also attended by former Bar Council president, Datuk S Ambiga; Umno Youth exco, Dr Fathul Bari Mat Jahaya, UM business and accountancy faculty head, Prof Mohd Nazari Ismail and UM senior lecturer, Siti Zubaidah Ismail.