MCA President Datuk Liow Tiong Lai, Gerakan President Datuk Mah Siew Keong, the MIC President Datuk S. Subramaniam should know that silence is no option and that they should explain whether they have deviated from the stand of their parties and broken ranks with the Barisan Nasional component parties from Sabah and Sarawak by secretly agreeing with the UMNO leadership to support BN government take-over of Hadi’s private member’s bill.
This is the logical conclusion from their continued silence on the Pensiangan Formula as the best way to address the political and constitutional stalemate created by UMNO’s support for PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Awang Hadi’s private member’s bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355).
The Pensiangan Formula comprises two elements, viz:
• Firstly, no government take over of Hadi’s private member’s bill; and • Secondly, the formation of an all-party Parliamentary Select Committee with the overall objective to strengthen inter-religious relations in Malaysia based on the Malaysian Constitution, Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) and Rukunegara, and with the specific objective to study Hadi’s private member’s motion, and to make recommendations.
I first spoke about the Pensiangan Formula when I was in Sook, Sabah last week and Liow, Mah and Subramaniam are welcome to point out the flaws of the Pensiangan Formula as the best way to address the political and constitutional stalemate created by UMNO support for Hadi’s private member’s bill motion.
Malaysians are utterly shocked by the trio’s silence to the secret UMNO agenda to present a “fait accompli” to the other 13 Barisan Nasional component parties which was revealed by two UMNO leaders when addressing the UMNO Overseas Club Alumni annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur on 18th December last year:
• The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom revealing that Hadi’s Private Member’s Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355) enabled the government to circumvent the due constitutional process, as requiring consensus from all states, the National Islamic Council and the Rulers’ Conference.According to Jamil, the BN government cannot propose such a bill to the Rulers’ Conference if there is no consensus from the 14 states, but a private member’s bill requires only one state or one person to table it. • The Deputy Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Ahmad Mazlan who said that BN component parties will not be able to object against amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355) once the relevant bill is taken over by the Federal Government as BN component parties are compelled to support the bill as part of the ruling coalition. Ahmad Mazlan went on to admit that the ulterior objective of UMNO’s support for Hadi’s private member’s bill motion was to cement UMNO’s “unity” with PAS!
There had been two Cabinet meetings since the revelation of the secret UMNO agenda behind the back of the other 13 Barisan Nasional component parties on the last two Wednesdays of the year, i.e. Dec. 21 and 28, but none of the non-UMNO Ministers had dared to confront their UMNO counterparts in Cabinet to demand a clarification and retraction of the UMNO secret agenda.
The first Cabinet meeting of the year tomorrow, Wednesday January 3, 2017, will the third opportunity for the leaders and Ministers from the other Barisan Nasional component parties to thrash out the vexing issue of a secret UMNO agenda as revealed by Jamil and Ahmad Mazlan to compromise the 13 other Barisan Nasional parties on Hadi’s private member’s bill motion in the March meeting of Parliament.
Will Liow, Mah, Subramaniam as well as the other non-UMNO Ministers from Sabah and Sarawak again avoid the issue of the secret UMNO agenda as revealed by Jamil and Ahmad Maslan in tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting?
Malaysians were dumb-founded when the UMNO and Barisan Nasional secretary-general, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor said last October that all the Barisan Nasional leaders have reached a consensus on Hadi’s private member’s bill. Was this what Adnan was referring to in October last year – that Liow, Mah and Subramaniam were among the Barisan Nasional leaders who had agreed to the government take-over of Hadi’s private members’ bill?
Liow, Mah and Subramaniam should explain how they can reconcile MCA, Gerakan and MIC’s so-called opposition to Hadi’s private member’s bill and yet want their MPs to vote in support of Hadi’s private member’s bill motion in the March Parliament (which will be equivalent to passage of the first reading of Hadi’s private member’s bill), to enable a BN government take-over of Hadi’s private member’s bill to prepare for the second-reading development of the bill?