DAP using hudud to oust Hadi, strengthen non-Malay support, don claims
(Malay Mail Online) – The DAP’s squabble with PAS in the ongoing hudud controversy is part of a “long term political plan” by the former to boot Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang from the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance, an academic has alleged.
According to National Council of Professors political cluster chief Professor Datuk Dr Mustafa Ishak, the DAP is hoping to use PR’s disagreement over hudud to turn PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu against his president Hadi.
“Yes, they are using hudud to attack Hadi. DAP wants Hadi to be out, so they turn against Hadi.
“Hadi will either be forced to leave Pakatan or drag the party out with him,” Mustafa was quoted saying in a report on New Straits Times (NST) today.
“Mat Sabu will challenge him for PAS’s presidency. If he wins, Mat Sabu will return to the opposition coalition as the party’s president,” he added, referring to Mohamad by his moniker.
The DAP’s plan to use Mat Sabu is because the PAS deputy and his allies are seen as more “friendly or subservient” to the pact’s commitment to achieve full consensus on thorny topics like hudud, NST reported.
Of late, Abdul Hadi has come in for criticism from sections of his party over his apparent snub of PR allies PKR and DAP over a number of issues.
The PAS president has stood apart from and at times clashed with the two other PR parties over the now-resolved Selangor mentri besar crisis, and continues to be absent from the pact’s leadership meetings despite repeated reminders that his non-attendance prevented decisions from being made.
“Other than gaining political ground with the non-Malays, particularly the Chinese, it is a weapon to be used against Hadi. It is a long term political plan for DAP,” Mustafa was quoted saying.
Three days ago, senior DAP leader Lim Kit Siang warned that the Kelantan state government’s plan to amend its Shariah laws to pave the way for hudud to be implemented will only work against PAS and its partners in PR, failing to win over the majority of Malay voters while alienating their non-Malay peers.
He claimed that it was clear from the results of past national polls that the Islamist party’s long-held desire to implement hudud has worked against them.
“In fact, hudud can be the cause for Pakatan Rakyat not only losing the battle for Putrajaya, but also losing Kelantan — as well as wiping out all the gains that PAS had made outside its traditional stronghold states, like Johor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Selangor, Perak and Penang,” Lim said in a statement.
Four days ago, Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob announced that the state legislative assembly would hold a special sitting on December 29 to table and pass amendments to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code II, otherwise referring to hudud law.
He told a news conference that the move was necessary to enable their move to table in Parliament a private member’s bill on the implementation of hudud.
