A Gerakan Youth leader has urged his Umno MPs not to support the controversial syariah amendments in Parliament for the sake of the nation.
Gerakan deputy Youth chief Andy Yong said Umno MPs’ votes are pivotal in PAS’ attempts to amend federal laws, which will effectively allow hudud to be implemented in Kelantan.
“Under the current composition in the Parliament, PAS will never see it through without Umno’s support.
“Hence I hope Umno MPs too do not compromise at the expense of not upholding the sanctity of our constitution.
“It is never about Islam, it is about the country. Malaysia will never be the same again,” said Yong in a statement last night.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s Private Member’s Bill to amend Act 355 related to syariah court powers is listed as item 4 of the Order Paper in today’s parliamentary sitting.
The amendments will remove the final obstacle for Kelantan’s hudud laws, after the Islamic penal code was unanimously passed at state level last year, with a majority of PAS and Umno assemblypersons and PKR’s sole state representative.
Yong reminded the MPs of their duty to protect and uphold the federal constitution.
“It is apparent that Hadi’s Bill will cause a mess in our legal system.
“There have been plethora of explanations and cases in the past years on the repercussion of it regardless of one is for or against the bill.”
“I therefore plead MPs from BN and Pakatan Harapan not to support Hadi’s bill,” said Yong.
BN’s hudud dilemma
As the motion on the bill comes up again today after Hadi deferred it in the last sitting, the non-Muslim BN component parties are again at odds with Umno over how to deal with the matter in Parliament.
Non-Muslim component parties are dead set against passing the amendments, but Umno has been evasive about its position.
Ironically, it was Prime Minister Naijb Abdul Razak and chief whip Deputy Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi whom Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said revealed had ordered Hadi’s motion to be fast tracked in the last parliamentary sitting.
In the initial stages, Najib’s administration also set up a joint technical committee with PAS to study the implementation of hudud in their eastern state.
Up until yesterday after a BN meeting, leaders of its component parties are still unable to reveal to the public whatever decision had purportedly been reached.
MIC president S Subramaniam yesterday said he hoped BN would “adhere to” the agreement made during the discussion, without elaborating.
MCA president Liow Tiong Lai also refused to divulge details of whatever agreement had been arrived at, but hinted at possible delays for the bill as the solution to BN’s hudud dilemma.
While Gerakan and MCA have routinely blamed DAP’s support for PAS for the developments in hudud implementation, Pakatan Harapan leaders argue encouraging the bill to be tabled is a BN ploy to break up the opposition.
Source: Malaysiakini
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