Yesterday, I suggested the postponement of a bill to amend the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code which is scheduled to be presented to the Kelantan State Assembly meeting beginning on March 18, as up to date, the bill has not been presented to the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council for study, as was decided by all the Pakatan Rakyat leaders from DAP, PKR and PAS at the meeting of Feb. 8.
This is to give adequate time for the Pakatan Rakyat parties to study the proposed amendment bill, but even more important, not to provide Prime Minister and UMNO President Datuk Seri Najib Razak and UMNO strategists the political life-line and the opportunity to further their “UG” (unity government between UMNO and PAs) and “hudud” political games solely to save themselves and to destabilize, divide and destroy Pakatan Rakyat unity and remove the challenge to replace UMNO/BN in Putrajaya in the 14th General Elections.
I am not really surprised that the strongest objection to my postponement proposal has not come from either PAS or UMNO, but from Gerakan and MCA. Within hours, the Gerakan reacted in outrage at the suggestion.
Why? This is because MCA and Gerakan leaders had been salivating at the prospect of Kelantan State Assembly passing an amendment bill by the PAS Kelantan State Government to the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code with the support by Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen, because they planned to use the Kelantan State Assembly passage of the hudud bill to launch a publicity offensive to attack the DAP.
MCA and Gerakan leaders believe they could ignore the fact that Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen had supported the Kelantan PAS State Government in the Kelantan State Assembly on hudud implementation.
They also believe they can get Malaysians to overlook the fact that Gerakan and MCA leadership had meekly agreed to UMNO Kelantan State Assembly contravening the founding principles of Barisan Nasional, MCA and Gerakan in therir support of Kelantan PAS State Government on hudud implementation in Kelantan, although the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council had never agreed to allow Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen to act independently to violate the fundamental principles of the Federal Constitution and founding policies of Barisan Nasional.
Instead of holding UMNO, whether in Kelantan or elsewhere in the country, to its promise as a Barisan Nasional partner to uphold the Federal Constitution and not to support hudud implementation in Kelantan, MCA and Gerakan have surrendered their “trump card” that all BN component parties do not agree with hudud implementation in accordance with the Malaysian Constitution, as the MCA and Gerakan leaders were only interested in seeing Kelantan State Assembly enact the bill to the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code so that MCA and Gerakan could concentrate their fire on DAP.
This is dishonest and gutter politics of the worst variety. Instead of holding Kelantan UMNO State Assembly to their commitment not to support PAS Kelantan State Government on hudud implementation in Kelantan, MCA and Gerakan leaders are only interested in the passage of any amendment bill on hudud implementation so that they could launch a publicity war against DAP – even if Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen supported PAS Kelantan on hudud implementation in Kelantan.
I believe the founding fathers of MCA and Gerakan, whether Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin, Dr. Lim Chong Eu would be utterly ashamed of what the present generation of MCA and Gerakan leaders are doing, showing that they have no political principles or scruples whatsoever.
DAP’s stand on any hudud implementation is clear, constant and consistent – that hudud implementation is not in accordance with the Federal Constitution principles and outside the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework.
MCA and Gerakan have agreed to UMNO Kelantan State Assemblymen to vote for hudud implementation in Kelantan as part of a larger UMNO plot to divide PAS and Pakatan Rakyat, but DAP is different from MCA and Gerakan and will remain consistent with our principle that hudud implementation is not in accordance with the the Federal Constitution and outside the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework.
We cannot therefore agree to PAS Kelantan State Government’s proposal on hudud implementation in the Kelantan State Assembly.
In May 2012 in Hulu Terengganu, PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang said hudud could only be implemented if there are adequate conditions, giving as examples that if there is no minimum wage provision or resolution of the unemployment problem, the conditions for implementation for hudud do not exist.
This is what the PR parties agreed in the PR Common Policy Framework (CPF) and why we in DAP are urging PR leaders and supporters to “return to basics for PR” and to reaffirm commitment to PR CPF – and to agree to an eight-year PR Roadmap to capture Putrajaya in the 14th General Election, putting aside all party differences including the controversial issue of hudud implementation in Kelantan till after 2018.