The rally organised by PAS was meant to show support for its president Abdul Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill that seeks to increase the shariah court’s punitive powers.
The bill has been criticised by many who claim that it is just PAS’ way to one day implement the hudud law.
Speaking to FMT, PAS information chief Nasrudin Hasan Tantawi suggested the large turnout was “a signal” to all that the majority of Muslims in the country supported the amendments.
“We hope that there won’t be anymore of those who belittle the Malaysian Muslims’ desire to see their rights be protected,” he said.
PAS vice-president Idris Ahmad echoed Nasrudin’s statement, telling FMT that the turnout was representative of the people’s desire to see shariah courts empowered through the proposed amendments.
“Alhamdulillah (Praise be to God), the amount of people who showed up has shown that they want the shariah courts in this country to be empowered and we hope that critics of these amendments will pay attention to that,” Idris said.
Thousands gathered along with PAS leaders at Padang Merbok to show their support for the amendments, but Nasrudin believes the number of Muslims who turned up had far overshadowed any rally prior to this.
“The streets were full of people all the way from Dataran Merdeka to the roundabout at Bank Negara. People couldn’t even enter Padang Merbok anymore so there must have been at least more than half a million who attended today,” Nasrudin said.
Act 355 currently allows prison sentences of a maximum three years, RM5,000 fine and six strokes of the cane.
The amendments proposed in Hadi’s bill aims to increase the punishments up to 30 years imprisonment, RM100,000 fine and 100 strokes of the cane.