Former minister Rafidah Aziz has called for religion, along with race and education, to be kept out of politics, saying there was no good reason for them to be mixed.

She was speaking on the 'Obviously Harith Iskander' talk show on Astro Awani when asked to comment about the hudud issue, which is now the rage during the twin by-elections in Selangor and Perak.

“I always say, don’t mix religion with politics. Politics isn’t about religion, race and education … it should’t be like this (politicised),” Sinar Harian today reported her saying on the programme.

“Distance them from politics. The three have no connection whatsoever with politics.

“If they are politicised for any reason whatsoever, it’s wrong,” she was reported saying.

The former trade and industry minister under the Mahathir administration said doing so only caused anxiety and disunity, according to the Malay daily.

Commenting further on hudud, which PAS is using to woo Muslim voters in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar after an Umno minister fast-tracked president Abdul Hadi Awang's motion, Rafidah said the Islamic penal code was more than just chopping of hands.

She lamented the politicising of hudud, saying it had obscured the real value behind Islamic laws.

“To me, what is happening now is just politicisation. It has nothing to do with religion,” she said.

Rafidah was Kuala Kangsar MP before handing the seat to the late incumbent Wan Mohammad Khair-il Anuar Wan Ahmad, whose untimely death during the Sarawak election campaign triggered the present by-election.

‘I was naughty, too’

She also spoke on the state of education today, lamenting how teachers were no longer allowed to discipline their students lest parents complained about them to the MPs.

“I too was naughty at school. My parents told the teacher, 'if our child is naughty, cane her'.

“Every teacher then had a cane and usually, they would cane the hand, except for the overly incorrigible, only then would they cane the rear.

“I always got caned on the hand because I was noisy in class.

She said despite the punishment, she never complained to her parents as that would only earn her a bigger cane at home.

Rafidah said she was tired of listening to the state of the educational system today, which she said was “most stupid”.