After the announcement of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council decision on Wednesday night by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak that the federal government will not takeover PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill to amend Act 355, attention has shifted to whether Hadi will be able to move his private member’s bill motion next Thursday (last day of the present Parliamentary meeting) and whether there would be a debate and a vote, and if so, what the voting outcome would be like.

Any passage of Hadi’s private member’s bill motion in Parliament next Thursday will make a total mockery of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council decision that the BN government will not take over Hadi’s private member’s bill.

This is because Dewan Rakyat Standing Order 49 (3) make it very clear that if leave is granted for a private member’s bill motion, in this case to amend Act 355, the Bill “shall be deemed to have been read the first time and ordered to be printed and a copy of the Bill shall be delivered to the Setiausaha”.

Standing Order 49(4) provides that the Bill “shall thereupon be printed and circulated to members, and shall stand referred without discussion to the Minister concerned with the subjects or functions to which the Bill relates to” and that “no further proceedings shall be taken upon such Bill until the Minister has reported to the House thereon”.

In the present case over Hadi’s Bill, the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council decided that the government (which would include any Minister concerned) would not take over Hadi’s private member’s bill, which would mean that even if Hadis’ private member bill motion is passed by Parliament, the Bill would not be taken over and pursued further by the Federal Government.

But any such voting outcome by MPs knowing that Hadi’s bill would not be taken over by the federal government will make Parliament the laughing-stock of the world – as if we have not enough things for the world to mock and ridicule, in particular over Malaysia as a global kleptocracy and the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal!

All MPs regardless of political party should pay heed to the statement by G25 comprising retired high-ranking civil servants urging an end to a divisive issue in a multi-racial Malaysia, which alienates our fellow Malaysians in Sabah and Sarawak and makes the minority races feel that they do not count.

Warning that such a divisive issue is “bound to create frictions in the federation, adding to the fears which many already have on the future of Malaysia as a constitutional democracy”, the group of G25 warned that Malaysians are already asking what has happened to the five principles of Rukunegara which was meant to unite the various communities into a happy and peaceful nation.

Members of Parliament must set the example to unite and not divide Malaysians of diverse races, languages, religions and cultures and come together, on the occasion of the 60th National Day anniversary and 57th Malaysia Day anniversary, to “reset” the nation building process and government policies – keeping policies which are good for the country and correcting or abandoning policies which are bad for Malaysia, like a global kleptocracy which could only lead Malaysia towards a failed and rogue state.