(Media Statement in Gelang Patah on Sunday, 27th April 2014)
For the first time in six years after the “political tsunami” of the 12GE in March 2008, the overly-paid strategists, plotters and schemers of UMNO/BN must be feeling on top of the world and rubbing their hands with glee for they have finally vindicated their existence and colossal expenditures.
They believe that they have struck gold and have finally succeeded in putting in place their formula to ensure the end of the political threat posed by Pakatan Rakyat and the return to Putrajaya of UMNO and BN in the 14GE by the perpetuation of the political and power structure of Umno/BN even in the years after 2020.
Three days ago, the Deputy Mentri Besar of Kelantan, Datuk Nik Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah publicly said that DAP and PKR should stay off the hudud bill controversy on the ground that “they have no right to interfere” in the PAS agenda to implement hudud in Kelantan.
He said that in the common policy framework signed among Pakatan Rakyat component parties on September 28, 2011, PAS only agreed to not impose on its long-standing objective for Malaysia to be recognised as an Islamic State.
He said the agreement is limited at the national level but in the context of Kelantan it is different because hudud was enacted way back in 1993, before the opposition pact was realised.
He said he did not understand why DAP and PKR are questioning PAS motives when there is a difference between a federal and state manifesto as PAS is not departing from the agreement by enforcing hudud in the Muslim-majority state of Kelantan.
This led the DAP National Organising Secretary Anthony Loke to riposte the next day that if PAS wanted to act on a unilateral basis on the hudud issue, it should quit Pakatan Rakyat as this would be going against the consensus in Pakatan.
Overnight, Pakatan Rakyat appears to be confronted with the worst crisis since it was first formed after the 2008 general elections, something which the overly-paid UMNO/BN strategists, plotters and schemers had never been able to achieve despite all their plots and provocations in the past six years.
Both Nik Amar and Anthony should have been more restrained in the public arena in view of the many in Umno/BN who seeking to “fish in troubled waters”, creating a situation which, in the Chinese saying, cause “friends to grieve and enemies to rejoice”.
Let all Pakatan Rakyat leaders, whether DAP, PAS or PKR, continue to be guided by the PR common policy framework and consensus so as to give hope to Malaysians for the long-needed changes in the political landscape in the country if Malaysia is to become a united, democratic, competitive and prosperous nation which holds itself out as beacon of light of a successful multi-racial and multi-religious nation to of the rest the world.
The September 28, 201l consensus of the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council referred to by Mohamad Amar, reaffirming that hudud is not a Pakatan Rakyat agenda, is as follows:
KENYATAAN BERSAMA MAJLIS PIMPINAN PAKATAN RAKYAT 28 September 2011 Mesyuarat Pakatan Rakyat malam ini memperakui dan mempertahankan dasar-dasar bersama yang telah dipersetujui sebelum ini sepertimana terkandung dalam Perlembagaan Persekutuan, Dasar Bersama dan Buku Jingga. Pakatan Rakyat terus memperteguhkan iltizam politik bagi mempertingkatkan daya-saing ekonomi, pendapatan rakyat, mutu pendidikan, kesihatan dan menangani kos kehidupan yang semakin menekan. Mesyuarat juga memperakui dan menghormati perbedaan ideologi setiap parti dalam Pakatan Rakyat sebagai sebuah permuafakatan demokratik, termasuk pendirian PAS berkenaan hukum syariah. Mesyuarat juga memperakui kewujudan Enakmen Jenayah Syariah II Kelantan 1993 dan enakmen Jenayah Syariah Terengganu 2003 yakni sebelum wujudnya muafakat Pakatan Rakyat. Keadilan dan PAS menghormati perbezaan pendirian oleh DAP dalam perkara ini. Mesyuarat Pakatan Rakyat juga mempertegaskan bahawa kami tidak akan terheret dengan mainan politik terdesak Umno-Barisan Nasional untuk memecah belahkan kesatuan Pakatan Rakyat. Kita percaya penuh di atas kematangan dan kebijaksanaan rakyat untuk menilai suasana ini. Mesyuarat sekali lagi mempertegaskan bahawa muafakat dan objektif utama politik parti-parti komponen PR dalam Pilihanraya Umum (PRU) ke-13 ini adalah untuk membina kembali asas-asas kenegaraan yang telah dirosakkan oleh Umno-BN, dengan berpandukan prinsip Keadilan Sejagat (UniversalJustice), Pentadbiran yang Baik (Good Governance), Kebertanggungjawaban (Accountability), Ketelusan (Transparency), Kompetensi (Competency) bagi mencapai Kemaslahatan Umum (Public Good) untuk semua rakyat. YB DATO SERI ANWAR IBRAHIM YB TUAN LIM KIT SIANG YB DATO SERI TUAN GURU HJ ABDUL HADI AWANG
Pakatan Rakyat component parties and leaders must always be aware of the plot of UMNO strategists, plotters and schemers to cause the disintegration of Pakatan Rakyat by magnifying differences where we have “agreed to disagree”, and to adhere strictly to the common policy framework arrived at by the Pakatan Rakyat parties to be the common national agenda for the country.
In these circumstances, I would call for an immediate moratorium on statements by Pakatan Rakyat leaders on latest hudud controversy and to refer the issue to Majlis Pimpinan Pakatan Rakyat for decision.