PETALING JAYA: A Gerakan Youth official has urged Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia to ensure that Abdul Hadi Awang’s proposed bill to enhance the powers of shariah courts isn’t passed stealthily by calling for a vote late in the night.
Andy Yong, who is Gerakan Youth’s deputy chief, said he hoped Pandikar would show “more transparency” in the Parliament session beginning today than he had done in the past.
“Let the parliamentarians know when the second reading is going to be tabled and debated in order to give everyone a fair chance,” he said in an interview with FMT.
“It concerns a very serious bill, one that affects the entire country. Don’t bulldoze through any bill in the middle of the night again.”
In April last year, the Prevention of Terrorism Bill was approved at 2.25am, after more than 14 hours of debate.
Last December, the equally controversial National Security Council Bill was passed at 10.55pm.
Yong noted that a simple majority was all it would take to get Hadi’s bill passed. “This means that if 100 MPs are present during the voting, the bill is passed if 51 vote for it.”
The bill, tabled by Hadi as a private member’s bill, proposes amendments to the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, also known as Act 355. It is seen as an attempt by PAS to enable the enforcement of hudud punishments in PAS-ruled Kelantan.
Source: FMT
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