After hudud manoeuvre, PAS could lose it all, Guan Eng says

(Malay Mail Online) – By placing its trust in Umno to achieve its hudud ambition, PAS has harmed not only its ties with PKR and DAP under the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) umbrella, but also its own prospects in the next general election, Lim Guan Eng said today.

The DAP secretary-general harangued PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang for taking his party down this path, saying the leader had gone back on his own word when he notified Parliament of plans to take hudud to the Dewan Rakyat despite promising not to do so without PR’s approval.

“Such serial acts of treachery by the PAS top leader is untenable and is a deliberate act of provocation to break up PR, or threaten DAP and PKR to either submit to PAS or face a break-up of PR,” Lim said in a statement here.

He said Hadi had shown “utter contempt” for PR by reneging on his own promise and added that such provocation by the party leader was a deliberate move to threaten its allies in DAP and PKR to either submit to PAS’s will or face a break-up of PR.

The manoeuvre, Lim claimed, has not only upset leaders in the DAP.

“Non-Muslim and moderate Muslim voters who supported PAS in the last general elections are also angered by such betrayal,” the Penang chief minister said.

“For Hadi to claim that non-Muslim still have a place in their hearts for PAS is sad not only because it is untrue but that he is so delusional to believe that PAS support amongst non-Muslims have not disappeared.”

Lim also reminded Hadi of a recent Merdeka Center survey that showed that the majority of the country’s Malay-Muslim voters feel the Kelantan government should focus on flood reconstruction works instead of hudud.

“PAS appears to have painted itself into a corner by being willing to lose all, not just the end of PR but also its electoral prospects in the next general elections, to place its trust in Umno to implement hudud laws,” he said.

Kelantan’s PAS-led government tabled amendments on Wednesday to the state’s Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 for the purpose of implementing hudud in the state, despite fierce opposition from its PR allies in PKR and DAP.

The amendments were passed the following day with 43 votes from the floor, including ayes from all 31 PAS assemblymen and 12 votes from Umno state lawmakers.

After the vote, Kelantan Barisan Nasional (BN) declared that its federal lawmakers will similarly support hudud in Parliament when PAS moves two private members’ bills at the lower House to pave the way for the implementation of the Islamic law in Kelantan.

According to reports, on the same day the Kelantan government tabled amendments to the state’s Islamic enactment, Hadi served notice to Parliament seeking to implement hudud in the east coast state by amending Act 355, which is the Shariah Court’s (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965.

Lim noted that the move was made even before the Kelantan assembly passed the amendments, and said Hadi had clearly violated a personal promise he had made to the PR leadership council during its February 8 meeting that any attempt to move a hudud bill in Parliament would first be discussed.

The DAP leader reiterated plans by his party to discuss PAS and Hadi’s manoeuvres when the party’s central executive committee meets on Monday.