To cane or not to cane?

Out of the sudden, Malaysia is in the international limelight again. This time around is because a Muslim lady was sentenced for 6 strokes of caning in offending the syariah laws of drinking alcohol. Then again, the Syariah Appeal Court has decided to defer the caning sentence as it is now the fasting month.

The Prime Minister has openly urged Kartika to appeal against the Syariah court to cane her. Sharizat, the minister of Women, Family and Community Development reiterated that the caning sentence meted out to Kartika is too extreme and the former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir also opined that the punishment was too harsh especially for a woman committed the offence the first time. All these experienced politicians and leaders know that the caning sentence meted out to Kartika has already attracted wide coverage of foreign media. Certainly, our prime Minister would not want to let the whipping sentence on a woman because of drinking beer to tarnish the image of our country. Such punishment will surely be deemed too extreme and violation of human rights by foreigners who drink beers just like we drink coca-cola every day.

The problem now is that Kartika is willing to accept the punishment. Unlike others who committed the same offence and getting the same punishments but went on to appeal, she didn’t appeal and thus the authorities got caught up. Now, to cane or not to cane is not just a simple decision to call for but a rather complicated and in-depth review on the present laws is needed to better shape up our legal systems so as to avoid such confusion from recurring.