Malaysia, you are really very wishy-washy. On the one hand, you want to enforce the curious law of not allowing beer consumption by Muslims. On the other hand, you are very damn slow in putting your words into action.
The poor Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno just wants to have this shameful episode to be over with & yet, you just continue to drag it on.
A Muslim model who was ordered to be caned for drinking beer urged the Malaysian authorities on Sunday to decide what should happen to her four months after her case was halted.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, was sentenced to six strokes by a religious court in July, the first woman ordered to be caned under Islamic law in Malaysia, a moderate Muslim-majority country.
But she won a surprise reprieve in late August when she was detained and then abruptly released by religious officials who had planned to take her to a jail where she was to undergo the thrashing.
The government said the sentence was 'too harsh' and could damage Malaysia's reputation.
'They should declare what they want to do with me, tell me, don't leave me in limbo, at least I would know where am I,' Ms Kartika told AFP by telephone from her hometown in northern Perak state. 'My stand is still the same - if they decide they want to cane me, please do it. I don't want to pressure them but what they promised is to postpone the caning until after the holy month of Ramadan, which was over in September.
'Even my lawyers don't know how they should help me now,' said Ms Kartika, adding that she is now a volunteer at an orphanage in Perak after quitting her job in Singapore at the height of her case to avoid public attention.
From Straits Times, "'Please expedite caning'".
A Muslim model who was ordered to be caned for drinking beer wants Malaysian authorities to decide what should happen to her four months after her case was halted.
Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, was sentenced to six strokes by a religious court in July, the first woman ordered to be caned under Islamic law in Malaysia, a moderate Muslim-majority country.
But she won a surprise reprieve in late August when she was detained and then abruptly released by religious officials who had planned to take her to a jail where she was to undergo the thrashing.
The government said the sentence was "too harsh" and could damage Malaysia's reputation.
"They should declare what they want to do with me, tell me, don't leave me in limbo, at least I would know where am I," Kartika told AFP from her hometown in northern Perak state.
"My stand is still the same - if they decide they want to cane me, please do it. I don't want to pressure them but what they promised is to postpone the caning until after the holy month of Ramadan, which was over in September.
"Even my lawyers don't know how they should help me now," said Kartika, adding that she is now a volunteer at an orphanage in Perak after quitting her job in Singapore at the height of her case to avoid public attention.
Kartika, a part-time model and mother-of-two, has stared down religious authorities by saying she is ready to be caned, refusing to appeal against her sentence and challenging them to cane her in public.
The religious court itself agreed to review the sentence after the case triggered a public furore, but the appeals panel later upheld the decision and ordered the caning to go ahead.
Abdul Hamid Abdul Rahman, the chief religious judge of Pahang state - where Kartika was arrested in a hotel nightclub - told the Star newspaper on Sunday that "there is nothing happening" at present.
Alcohol is widely available in Malaysia but is forbidden for Muslim Malays, who make up 60 per cent of the population. They can be fined, caned, or jailed for up to three years but prosecutions are extremely rare.
Malaysia has a dual-track legal system and Islamic courts can try Muslims for religious and moral offences.
Islamic scholars, who have mostly backed the sentence, said the punishment would be carried out with Kartika fully clothed and with a cane that is smaller and lighter than the heavy length of rattan used in most cases.
From SMH, "Beer-drinking Malaysian model 'in limbo'".
