Open Letter to MCA President Datuk Liow Tiong Lai and Gerakan President Datuk Mah Siew Keong
25th February 2015 8 am

This is my third pre-Cabinet Open Letter for this month of February, but unlike the first two pre-Cabinet Open Letters to all Cabinet Minsiters, this is addressed specifically to the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, the Transport Minister and the Gerakan President, Datuk Mah Siew Keong, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

It is clear that the UMNO/BN strategists are taking full advantage of a possible change of political dynamics in Pakatan Rakyat with the death of Tuan Guru Nik Aziz and the imprisonment of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to refurbish and launch a devilish political plot to destabilize, divide and destroy the Pakatan Rakat which it rightly regarded as the greatest threat to the credibility and survival of the ruling coalition.

This latest UMNO/BN political plot has two phases, firstly and immediately to entice the PAS Kelantan State Government with UMNO support for the implementation of hudud legislation in Kelantan; secondly, the lure of “unity government” between UMNO and PAS.

This UMNO/BN political plot is a two-faced double prong one: on the one hand, UMNO promising and delivering support of UMNO Kelantan State Assemblymen to PAS Kelantan State Government in the Kelantan State Assembly on the implementation of hudud legislation in Kelantan next month; while on the other, MCA and Gerakan launching an intensive three-week publicity war against the DAP and PKR for “betraying the rights of non-Malays and non-Muslims” in supporting PAS Kelantan State Government in hudud implementation in the Kelantan State Assembly next month.

Top MCA and Gerakan leaders have started the political offensives and the MCA and Gerakan will intensify in the coming three weeks, focusing on the Kelantan PAS State Government’s stand in the Kelantan State Assembly on hudud implementation in Kelantan while totally ignoring the support of the Kelantan UMNO Assembly members to hudud implementation in Kelantan.

This is the irresponsible and hypocritical game of political desperadoes, bankrupts and cowards who are incapable of taking a consistent stand but must twist and turn depending on the season and audience.

In the past few days, MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders have suggested that I should quit if PAS succeeds in implementing hudud in Kelantan, clearly belabouring under the notion that if the Kelantan State Assembly enacts amendments to hudud legislation next month, it is tantamount to the implementation of hudud in Kelantan.

The MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders are either ignorant or pretend to be ignorant so that they could ground a prolonged political offensive on such a false premise.

Let us get two things clear about the proposal of hudud implementation in Kelantan.

Firstly, any amendment to the Kelantan hudud legislation in the Kelantan State Assembly next month will not lead to any hudud implementation in Kelantan state.

The Kelantan PAS hudud legislation was enacted in 1993 in the form of Syariah Criminal Code but it could not be implemented in the past 22 years because it is against the Federal Constitution.

It will be most pathetic if I have to educate MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders the simple knowledge that an amendment to an unconstitutional Enactment will only produce an unconstitutional and unenforceable Enactment with an unenforceable and unconstitutional amendment!

Surely MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders throughout the country are not so superficial and shallow in their law and general knowledge as to believe that an amendment to a 22-year State Enactment which is unconstitutional and could not be enforced from 1993-2015 could make the enactment enforceable instantly as to effect an immediate hudud implementation in Kelantan!

The same situation applies to Terengganu as the PAS Terengganu State Government enacted the Terengganu Syariah Criminal Offence (Hudud and Qisas) Enactment in 2003, but it could not be implemented in the past 12 years because it was against the Federal Constitution.

If the MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders still cannot understand this simple point, I am prepared to offer them free tuition courses in their party headquarters.

The second thing about the proposal of hudud implementation in Kelantan is that it could not be implemented without authority from Parliament by way of an amendment to the Federal Constitution.

We are therefore talking about two processes that must be taken before they could be any hudud implementation in Kelantan – one at the Kelantan State Assembly and the second in Parliament. Any amendment to the Kelantan hudud legislation by the Kelantan State Assembly next month will not be constitutional or enforceable unless there is a follow-up Parliamentary endorsement.

Although any amendment to the hudud legislation in Kelantan State Assembly next month will not mean any implementation of hudud in Kelantan, as it will be a status quo like what prevailed in the 22 years from 1993 to 2015, unless there is follow-up endorsement by Parliament, the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council decided at its meeting of February 8, 2015 that the proposed amendment to the hudud legislation in the Kelantan State Assembly next month as well as any proposal such as a private member’s bill in Parliament to seek sanction for hudud implementation in Kelantan should be brought to the PR Leadership Council, as hudud and local government elections are issues outside the PR Common Policy Framework agreed by all three signatory member parties.

It was also agreed by the Feb. 8, 2015 meeting of the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council that that there should be no further development of either issue until a specific PR Leadership Council meeting is held, which means any proposed amendment to the hudud legislation in Kelantan must be first tabled and studied by the PR Leadership Council.

I am penning this pre-Cabinet Open Letter to the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai (Transport Minister) and the Gerakan President, Datuk Mak Siew Keong (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department) to inquire whether the Barisan Nasional has altered its stand taken by the founding fathers of the nation that hudud legislation is against the Federal Constitution and the secular character of the nation.

If not, are both Liow and Mah prepared to notify the Cabinet today that their resignations from the Cabinet would instantly come into effect when the Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen are allowed by the UMNO leadership to support PAS hudud legislation in Kelantan State Assembly next month?

I hope both Liow and Mah will make public after the Cabinet meeting later today whether they had given such notification to the Cabinet today.

This is a serious matter because political leaders in a plural society like Malaysia should not play irresponsible and dirty political games – as indulging in the two-faced politics of accusing the DAP of selling out the non-Malay and non-Muslim voters in non-Malay non-Muslim areas, while accusing PAS of selling out Malay and Muslim rights in Malay constituencies.

The Pakatan Rakkat of DAP, PAS and PKR was formed to defend and promote the inclusive rights and interests of all Malaysians, regardless of whether Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Iban or Orang Asli; whether Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs or Taoists, and we stand by this credo.

This is in great contrast to the UMNO/Barisan Nasional coalition whose vision had shrivelled from the grand one of Bangsa Malaysia of Vision 2020 and even 1Malaysia in the early years of Najib premiership to an increasingly narrow, intolerant, exclusive, racist and religious obsession.

Liow and Mah can confirm my suspicion whether the death of Nik Aziz and the imprisonment of Anwar Ibrahim have revived the “Unity Government” (UG) conspiracy of UMNO schemers proposing the formation of UMNO-PAS “unity” government.

What is the stand of MCA and Gerakan on this “UG” government issue – was it ever discussed in the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council or the Cabinet?

Three recent events have attracted my attention, viz:

• firstly, the sudden increase in the number of speeches and statements by all levels of MCA and Gerakan leaders on the issue of hudud implementation in Kelantan in the past few days;

• secondly, the sudden two-hour meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council last Friday night within 24 hours of the death of Tok Guru Nik Aziz on the night of Thursday, 12th February, necessitating the holding of a by-election in the Chempaka state constituency; and

• thirdly a statement by a UMNO Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Deputy Umno Youth leader Razali Ismail on Tuesday, 17th February that “despite the death of PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, UMNO will continue to support the Islamic party on the implementation of hudud in Kelantan”.

So is the stage set for a “big drama” from the Barisan Nasional component parties for next month’s Kelantan State Assembly, with Kelantan UMNO State Assemblmen voting in support of hudud implementation in Kelantan but ignored by MCA and Gerakan leaders and publicists who will concentrate on their attacks on the DAP and PKR for “selling out the rights of the non-Malays and non-Muslims in Malaysia” because of PAS Kelantan State Assemblymen and women voting for implementation of hudud in Kelantan?

In the uproar and din of multi-party attacks and counter-attacks, accusations and counter-accusations, the inability of the Kelantan State Assembly to implement hudud unless Parliament authorizes it will be temporarily forgotten.

What now is the next chapter in the devilish Umno/BN plot to destabilize, divide and destroy Pakatan Rakyat now that Anwar has stymied their plans, as there will not be two simultaneous by-elections of Chempak state assembly in Kelantan and Permatang Pauh parliamentary in Penang but only one.

The least Liow and Mah can do is to advise the UMNO and BN leaders to follow through with their original plan to stay out of Chempaka by-election to give PAS an uncontested victory, as well as to later stay out of the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election if Anwar’s pardon appeal is rejected.

(Media Statement in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 25th February 2015)