When I suggested last month that an emergency meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council should be requisitioned over what happened in Parliament on May 26, where the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, fast-tracked Hadi’s hudud motion and violated the 43-year Barisan Nasional stand and consensus that PAS’ hudud proposal was not appropriate for Malaysia’s plural society and against the fundamental provisions of the 1957 Merdeka Constitution and 1963 Malaysia Agreement, there was not a single leader from the 14-party Barisan Nasional coalition who dared to take up the suggestion.

Since then, the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar parliamentary by-elections had been held with unexpectedly big victories for the UMNO/Barisan Nasional candidates.

But what do the twin Barisan Nasional by-election victories mean in terms of Hadi’s hudud motion, which will need another Ministerial motion to “fast-track” it in the parliamentary agenda when Parliament reconvenes on Oct. 17, so that it could be given priority over government business to be presented to Parliament for resolution.

Will the twin Barisan Nasional by-election victories mean that there will be another Ministerial motion at the end of the year to fast-track Hadi’s hudud motion, or will it mean that there will no Ministerial motion to fast-track Hadi’s hudud motion and that it will left in limbo as had been the case with Hadi’s hudud motion in the past?

All the leaders of the other 13 parties in the Barisan Nasional coalition are keeping mum on the subject as none of them know what is going to happen in Parliament at the end of the year as it will all depend on what would best serve the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s interests to ensure his own political survival.

This is a sad commentary that the Barisan Nasional has long ceased to be a coalition of equals, where the Prime Minister is ‘primus inter pares’ but a very lop-sided political coalition where the UMNO President and Prime Minister, can singly, unilaterally and arbitrarily disregard 43-year-old Barisan Nasional consensus and decide what should be Barisan Nasional policy as happened in Parliament on May 26. Read the rest of this entry »