In a series of postings on Twitter this morning, he stressed that ethical standards understood to be practised before were not necessarily Islamic and relevant today.
“Morality and values of the bedouins are not necessarily Islamic and therefore just and useful in present-day context,” he tweeted.
“You do not waste time debating the source of our laws. You should be more interested in justice.”
Zaid was apparently responding to lawyer Aidil Khalid who told a debate session yesterday that Muslims could enforce principles of morality according to their religion by amending the law to enhance punishments according to Islamic principles.
Aidil also claimed that the Penal Code had elements of Christianity brought here by the British colonialists.
“Lawyer Aidil suffers from lack of comprehension on how civilisation evolves. Morality has always been the product of people’s beliefs,” Zaid, who recently joined DAP, said.
He also called the move to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (Act 355) a political gimmick as no state government had asked for it. All shariah courts in Malaysia operate at the state level.
“Act 355 procedural? It’s irrelevant how you describe it. What matters is who needs it? No state government asked for it,” he tweeted.
“Hadi Awang is not a state government, in case some Islamist forgets,” he added.
Hadi, who is Marang MP and PAS president, has, through a private member’s bill tabled last year, sought to amend the act to allow for stiffer punishments for shariah offenders. The increased sentences proposed include a maximum punishment of up to 30 years’ jail, 100 lashes of the cane and RM100,000 for fines.
“So u see its just a political gimmick to impress unsuspecting muslims that Najib/Hadi are Islamic warriors,” he said, referring to the recent close ties reported between Prime Minister Najib Razak and Hadi.