Has the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s statement declaring UMNO/Barisan Nasional opposition to PAS President and MP for Marang, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill on hudud implementation suffered “still birth” after 17 days of prolonged “labour pain”?

Seventeen days ago, the MCA President was so cocksure that the Prime Minister would declare the UMNO/BN stand opposing Hadi’s private member’s bill that the “news” was leaked to a Chinese national daily which published the “exclusive news” on the front page, but which proved to be the major false news leak in the history of Malaysian journalism.

The MCA President’s cocksure confidence that Najib would be making a statement within 24 hours on UMNO/BN’s opposition to Hadi’s private member’s bill has under gone a five-step metamorphosis in the past 17 days of “labour pains” of the Prime Minister, viz:

(i) from cocksure confidence that the Prime Minister would be issuing the statement within 24 hours;

(ii) to a softened one that the Prime Minister’s statement would be issued in the next few days;

(iii) five days later, an even softer position announced by the MCA President urging all to give the Prime Minister “more time” to make public UMNO/BN stand on Hadi’s private member’s bill.

(iv) On the same day (25th March) that I suggested giving the “labour pains” Prime Minister another 48 hours until the next cabinet meeting on 27th March to deliver the public announcement of UMNO/BN opposition to Hadi’s private member’s bill, MCA further changed gear by avoiding any reference to a timeline, merely declaring that MCA is “positive” that the Prime Minister would make “the correct announcement”.

(v) When the 27th March Cabinet meeting came and went, and still no announcement by the Prime Minister, apart from a fake statement in which Najib purportedly called on UMNO MPs to vote according to their conscience, there was shock from MCA. A top MCA official dropped his MCA status and used instead his capacity as a president of a Chinese organization to adopt the DAP argument to remind Najib that the first five Prime Ministers would have no hesitation to reiterate and reaffirm Barisan Nasional (previously Alliance) stand that hudud laws are against the Malaysian Constitution and unsuitable for the multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural nation like Malaysia.

(vi) When UMNO Ministers publicly rebutted MCA leaders’ claims that the Cabinet had discussed the hudud issue and that the Prime Minister had agreed to issue a statement declaring UMNO/BN opposition to Hadi’s private member’s bill, MCA position crumbled and further backtracked with the MCA Youth Leader declaring that there was “no rush” for the Prime Minister to issue his statement as the BN has already rejected hudud.

This five-step metamorphosis in the MCA stand from “PM’s statement within 24 hours” to “PM’s statement within the next few days”, “Give PM more time to make statement”, “PM will make correct announcement”, then a period of shocked silence and then to “No rush for PM to make statement” marks the final still-birth of the Prime Minister’s statement on UMNO/BN opposition to Hadi’s private member’s bill.

What more need one say about MCA’s stand on hudud law and implementation after such a five-step metamorphosis of its stand in a matter 17 days.

This should be no surprise to anyone when the present generation of MCA national leadership could do what earlier generations of MCA leadership would never have agreed – to tacitly support UMNO Kelantan State Assemblymen supporting PAS Kelantan in the Kelantan Assembly on hudud implementation on March 19, 2015.