Report confirmed by Mat Sabu before going into print
(Sin Chew Daily) — On the front page report on Tuesday, Sin Chew Daily reporter had on Monday repeatedly clarified with PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, who confirmed that his party indeed had the intention of implementing the hudud law through constitutional amendment in the Parliament if it won the next general election. However, he said the party had yet to discuss tabling of constitutional amendment in the Parliament.
Online media have been playing up the news Tuesday morning that Mat Sabu had denied the report. We have, nevertheless, tried without success to contact Mat Sabu to get his further clarification on this matter.
As a matter of fact, we called up Mat Sabu on Sunday and forwarded him the question, “Can you explain the remark made by PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang after the party’s political and election bureau meeting on August , that PAS will implement the hudud law through democratic proceedings?”
The above remark was made by Hadi Awang on the party’s Harakah Daily website last Saturday (August 25).
Mat Sabu replied, “Democracy is about forming the government through the ballot box. The amendment of any policy needs to go through the Parliament, and the support of two thirds of all MPs is required for constitutional amendment.”
As such, we based on the reply of Mat Sabu to come up with the headline news of the evening edition whereby Mat Sabu said PAS had decided to seek constitutional amendment in the Parliament to implement the hudud law if Pakatan Rakyat won the next general election.
However, having learned that Mat Sabu denied to an English daily the report appearing on Sin Chew Daily, we called him again Monday afternoon to seek further clarification.
Mat Sabu said, “What I was saying was any law that needed to be amended had to go through the Parliament. I did not mention hudud law.”
He also said PAS had not discussed tabling constitutional amendment in the Parliament.
However, since we sought the explanation from Mat Sabu in relation to the remark made by party president Hadi Awang, so we asked him again whether his so-called “any law” would include the hudud law, and he said affirmatively, “Yes.”
We sought further clarification from him, “Can we say PAS indeed has the intention (memang berhasrat) to amend the Constitution to implement any law, including the hudud law, but then the party has yet to discuss tabling this motion in the Parliament?” He also replied affirmatively, “Yes, you can.”
As such, we changed the headline on the morning edition of Sin Chew Daily to: “Mat Sabu says PAS has intention to seek constitutional amendment in the Parliament in order to implement the hudud law if the party wins the next general election.”
PAS vice president Salahuddin Ayub said when contacted Tuesday that the political bureau’s meeting last Saturday had decided that all issues related to the hudud law could only be answered by the party president alone and as such, he was not in any position to answer the question.
We tried again today (Tuesday) to call Mat Sabu for clarification, including ringing up Shamsuri Ahmad, political secretary for PAS president Hadi Awang, but unfortunately we still could not get the line through.
