DAP MP: If Pakatan splits over hudud, so be it

(Malay Mail Online) – A DAP lawmaker said today there may be no choice but to accept a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) break-up over hudud as despite fierce opposition from its allies, PAS appears bent on implementing the Islamic penal code in Kelantan.

Gobind Singh Deo said PAS is clearly attempting to force DAP and PKR into accepting the controversial law, despite acknowledging that the thorny issue could spell an end to the seven-year-old PR pact.

He cited PAS vice-president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man’s warning yesterday as an example, saying the party appears to prefer causing a split in PR in order to get support for hudud.

“What PAS proposes to do is squarely against the common policy framework of Pakatan Rakyat. It also now through this threat, seeks to force not only PKR and DAP but everyone to accept it,” Gobind said in a statement.

“If Tuan Ibrahim and PAS Kelantan warns of a break in Pakatan Rakyat if DAP and PKR do not support hudud, then it is clear that they are bent towards this.

“If that be the case, then I say, so be it,” added the DAP National Legal Bureau chairman.

Gobind said such threat was “dishonourable”, and insisted that DAP will not be cowed nor give in to threats from anyone when it comes to its official stand against implementing hudud.

Yesterday, PAS turned the tables on allies telling it to end its hudud ambitions to preserve the PR pact, urging PKR and DAP to embrace the Islamic penal law towards the same end.

His remarks came after Kelantan Deputy Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah told Malay Mail Online that the state would not revise its amendments to the Islamic penal law as requested by the PR leadership.

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.

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.