Act hard if PAS violates Pakatan trust with hudud, Loke tells PKR and DAP

(Malay Mail Online) – PKR and DAP must take strong action against PAS if the party insists on tabling changes to Kelantan’s hudud law after previously agreeing to revise the proposed amendments, DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke said.

According to the Seremban MP, this is because the changes PAS is proposing are not updates to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993 but an entirely new and wide-ranging Shariah Penal Code 2015.

The Seremban MP added that the wholesale changes meant PAS could no longer claim that the state’s hudud law predates Pakatan Rakyat and consequently a part of the pact, and exacerbated the problem beyond the present disagreement.

“The issue facing PR today is not just the difference of opinion between PAS and DAP on enforcing hudud, but that the basic principles in the common policy framework of consensus and honesty have been violated.

“The leadership of DAP and PKR must take a strong decision if PAS Kelantan ignores the views of DAP and PKR from the March 12 presidential council meeting and tables the Shariah Criminal Code bill in Kelantan this March 18,” he said in a statement tonight.

Loke did not specify, however, what would constitute a strong decision.

He also accused Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah of being dishonest and misleading the PR presidential council when the latter previously maintained that the proposed changes were only minor updates to the hudud enactment.

“PAS Kelantan must openly explain to its members and supporters why an enactment passed in 1993 must be tabled again in 2015. Has the Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993 existed illegitimately all this while?” Loke asked.

This morning, Amar said Kelantan would proceed with tabling the proposed changes on March 18 and will not revise the draft as requested by the PR presidential council.

“Not going to go back to meet Pakatan again. We have discussed and it will be tabled,” he told Malay Mail Online.

PAS vice-president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man today also told PKR and DAP to accept the Islamist party’s hudud to prevent the breakup of PR.

On Thursday, the PR presidential council told PAS to “reconsider” its proposed amendments to its Kelantan hudud bill, after the Islamist party shared the planned legislative changes with the opposition pact for the first time.

DAP’s Gobind Singh Deo, who was present at the PR presidential council meeting, had argued that the planned amendments were essentially an entirely new piece of legislation and not just minor updates to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993 as previously claimed.

He added, however, that DAP will continue to reject hudud as it was “impractical and against Pakatan’s common policy framework.”

The Kelantan state government reportedly plans to table amendments to the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993 at the state legislative assembly on March 18.

Details of the proposed amendments, however, have not been made public nor did the PAS-led state administration share copies of the bill with their PR partners until this week.

Both PKR and DAP are opposed to ally PAS’s bid to enforce hudud in Kelantan, which has instead found support from rival Umno.