mr president malaysia has moved towards a more islamic form of governance in recent years
this is of some concern because malaysia could be an important ally for the eu being a strategically placed democratic asian country with a developed economy
sadly western concepts of human rights are less developed in malaysia
however i am unsure as to why we have singled out malaysia here
malaysia is a muslim majority country and such punishments are commonplace in many sharia law-based countries and are mandated by the koran which serves as the ultimate legal authority for all muslims
indeed caning is a relatively mild punishment compared to some of the other extremely brutal methods of punishment used in some muslim countries including amputation lapidation and beheading
caning should also be seen in the asian cultural context for example neighbouring secular singapore also sentences criminals to caning and the indonesian province of aceh which receives a lot of eu aid has recently introduced caning under its sharia law policy
in eu member states traditional implementation of corporal punishment is rightly banned and let us hope that malaysia one day will follow our enlightened example
but it is not at all clear in my mind that caning is illegal under international law as stated in the resolution
