By: LESTER KONG

PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA - The Home Ministry needs to study the proper procedures before carrying out a caning sentence on a woman according to Syariah law, minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said.

"We don't have the expertise, I have to admit.

"I will not allow the sentence to be carried out if we do not have the knowledge to do so. This needs to be discussed with the relevant authorities first," he said at a press conference at his ministry, here, yesterday.

Part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, who was fined RM5,000 (S$2,051) and ordered to be whipped six times for consuming alcohol in a hotel last year, had her sentence deferred until after Ramadan as a mark of respect.

Hishammuddin said caning sentences, meted out by the Syariah courts, were different.

"I have ordered the Prisons Department to find out how long it would take to train someone to do it," he said.

"At the moment, we are not ready."

On another matter, Hishammud-din said community-based security, funded by property developers, could become the norm in the future.

He urged developers to include police beat bases in all new housing projects and install closed-circuit televisions.

Hishammuddin also said the national key result areas (KRA) secretariat, led by SAC II Datuk Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd to reduce street crimes by 20% by the end of 2010, had been formed.

He added that the secretariat was formed to achieve one of the six national KRAs announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak last month.

--The Star/ANN