Wearing a traditional Muslim head covering, a relaxed looking Kartika Dewi Shukarno arrived at the Pahang Islamic Affairs Council on Wednesday to meet its chairman. <br /><br />The two met for an hour-long meeting to discuss Kartika’s punishment. <br /><br />She has been fined and sentenced by a religious court to six lashes with a rattan stick for drinking beer in public. <br /><br />Kartika has accepted her sentence and is anxious to get it over with. <br /><br />But the Malaysian government has been slow to make a decision on whether to carry it out. <br /><br />The incident has drawn fierce criticism from the public. <br /><br />Some human rights groups claim the punishment is too stiff and threatens to give the increasingly Muslim country a bad reputation. <br /><br />Crown Prince Tengku Abdullah insisted after their meeting that Islamic Law be carried out. <br /><br />[Crown Prince Tengku Abdullah, Regent of Pahang]:male, Bahasa Melayu <br />"We will wait, for a short period of time. If there is no answer from the other party or rather no appeal from Kartika's party, we will then proceed with the whipping." <br /><br />There is still a possibility that Kartika could appeal her sentence. <br /><br />If she does, the prince's father, the Sultan of Pahang, has the power to waive the caning.
