Marina Mahathir: Sorry, but not heading for departure gate yet

Activist Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir said that while she was not readying to leave, she stood by her disagreement towards hudud and the growing religious conservatism here. ― Picture by Saw Siow FengKUALA LUMPUR, May 24 — Those hoping to see the last of Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir will have to keep on waiting, after the social activist who declared she would quit Malaysia if hudud is enforced here today said she is not leaving yet.

In a Facebook post to clarify the declaration she made during an interview withMalay Mail Online, the daughter of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that while she was not readying to leave, she stood by her disagreement towards hudud and the growing religious conservatism here.

Acknowledging that Malaysia was not yet on the same level as repressive regimes such as Saudi Arabia or Iran, she nevertheless said that the country was headed down the same path where diversity and acceptance were increasingly being eroded.

“So no, sorry, I’m not going anywhere because if I did I would be constantly searching for the Malaysia I grew up in, where people did not constantly stand in judgment of one another based on what they wore, when people did not call you a traitor to your community just because you think and are different, where people did not think it’s a good idea to have different laws for different people and believe that’s justice, as some do today.

“I’m searching for that Malaysia even while I’m at home, imagine if I were to go off somewhere else,” she wrote.

Yesterday, Malay Mail Online published interview that quoted Marina as saying she could not live in a country where people’s hands are cut off, referring to the amputations that are among the prescribed punishments under hudud.

Malaysia is currently caught up in a controversy over hudud, which Islamist party PAS is attempting to implement in Kelantan.

PAS does not have the necessary numbers in Parliament to remove the legal barriers that have prevented this ambition for decades, and is appealing to all Muslim MPs — friend or foe — to support what it said is a religious obligation.

While Umno that commands the largest number of Muslims MPs — and MPs, in general — has not declared whether it will heed PAS’s call, the Malay nationalist party’s lawmakers in Kelantan had in March supported the amendments of the state’s hudud law.