Hadi's bill tabled in Parliament

KUALA LUMPUR: The motion to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (RUU 355) was finally tabled in the Dewan Rakyat today following several postponements and heated objections.
The Private Member's Bill was tabled by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, who is also the Marang MP.
Abdul Hadi, when tabling and explaining the bill, reiterated that the non-Muslims should not fear the amendments as punishments that could be meted out would only affect Muslims.
"History has proven that since this act was first passed, no non-Muslim has been charged under this act.
"Non-Muslim lawmakers have no right to oppose this bill," he said, adding that the non-Muslim MPs have a responsibility to their Muslim constituents.
"The proposed amendments are only applicable to Muslims in this country, just like the existence of the bi-judiciary system of the Civil and Syariah courts."
Abdul Hadi started to table the motion at 12.37pm and went on for about 20mins.
There were nine points of order raised by Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Gelang Patah), Gobind Singh Deo (DAP-Puchong), Lee Boon Chye (DAP-Gopeng) and Gooi Hsiao Leung (PKR-Alor Star) and Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS-Kota Baru).
The heated proceedings came to a halt when Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia warned the MPs that he will eject them if they continued to stand up and interrupt the proceeding.
Pandikar later postponed the debate on Abdul Hadi's motion until the Dewan Rakyat re-convenes on July 24. The Dewan adjourned at 4pm today.
In order to make way for Abdul Hadi's motion, the government had bulldozed two major bills, deferred four other bills and withdrew one bill before adjourning Wednesday's session at 5am early this morning.
After Pandikar made his ruling to defer the motion, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said announced that the house was adjourned.
The bill was first tabled by Abdul Hadi in May last year, seeking to grant the Syariah Court powers to impose stiffer penalties on all crimes except those with the death sentence.
It was then deferred to the next meeting in November last year, when Abdul Hadi read out an amended version of his bill, where its tabling and debate was once again deferred to the current Parliament sitting.
In March 2015, the Kelantan state legislature assembly had unanimously passed amendments to its penal code, which triggered the implementation of Islamic penal code in the state – pending the amendment of RUU 355.