The man who is today preening himself with pride in successfully carrying off the “greatest political coup in UMNO history” will be none other than the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom, who hatched his political plot par excellence with a statement in Parliament on March 27 which completely took PAS leaders by surprise – that the Barisan Nasional Federal Government was prepared to assist the Kelantan PAS State Government to implement hudud laws.

This was a plot to save UMNO and BN, which former Election Commission Chairman/Secretary for 25 years have said are in their “death throes”, and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin conceded that UMNO/BN would be ousted from power if the ruling coalition loses just two per cent of voter support in the next general elections – by creating division in Pakatan Rakyat over the issue of hudud implementation.

But there is also a bonus in the plot – in providing a life-line to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is facing relentless attack and the greatest pressure in his five-year nine-month premiership over the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

Najib has attracted brickbats over the mega 1MDB scandal not only from Pakatan Rakyat led by MPs Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli but also from inside UMNO led by none other than the formidable fourth Prime Minister of 22 years, Tun Mahathir, and others like Tun Daim.

The Kelantan Special State Assembly on Dec. 29 on the implementation of hudud would be like manna from heaven for Najib, as it would provide precious diversion and distraction from the mega 1MDB scandal!

Although DAP and PKR leaders, and the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council, were taken completely by surprise by the Sunday announcement of the Kelantan Mentri Besar, Datuk Ahmad Yakob of the special meeting of the Kelantan State Assembly on Dec. 29 on hudud implementation, Jamil is clearly not surprised.

The DAP’s stand on hudud and its implementation is the same as the stand taken by the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein – that hudud laws go against the Malaysian Constitution which provides for a secular state with Islam as the religion of the Federation and freedom of worship guaranteed for other religions.

Let no one suggest that the first three Prime Ministers are not good Muslims, and no one should forget that Tunku served for three years as the first Secretary-General of Organisation of Islamic States (OIC) after he stepped down as Prime Minister.

MCA and Gerakan officials have been issuing very fierce statements about the Kelantan State Assembly special meeting on hudud implementation on Dec. 29.

The Gerakan President Datuk Mah Siew Keong even challenged political leaders from both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional to “reject hudud as responsible politicians” and to “make a clear and unambiguous stand to reject Hudud as it is unconstitutional and impractical in a multiracial society.”

Will MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sabah/Sarawak BN component parties leave Barisan Nasional if UMNO Assemblymen in Kelantan support hudud implemention in the Kelantan Special State Assembly on Dec. 29?