DAP slips up on hudud
With evidence appearing on YouTube, the liberal party loses the right to criticise PAS
Scott Ng, Free Malaysia Today
My, my, my. What a tangled web we weave in Malaysian politics. We weave it so thick that it obscures the truth.
I will confess to having had a rather positive view of the DAP for quite some time. There’s nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a political party being efficient and effective, and in these respects the DAP has impressed thus far. Its liberal leanings seem more palatable than the ultra-conservative bent taken by PAS and Umno, and at its highest echelons are respected lawyers who pursue the cause of justice passionately and doggedly.
I believed that throughout the debate on the hudud issue in Kelantan, the DAP had a consistent stand against the Islamic criminal justice system. However, a video has emerged from 2013 that shows representatives from PAS and DAP, including Lim Guan Eng, agreeing that PAS has a right to pursue hudud as its individual agenda.
The DAP has lost the right to criticize PAS over the issue with the emergence of this video, which was shot during the 2013 election season. Obviously, the statement recorded in the video was made so as not to alienate PAS’ grassroots supporters and potential Malay voters who could have been put off by an obstinate anti-hudud stance from the DAP.
DAP’s willingness to set principles aside for political convenience has now come back to haunt it.
You cannot present two faces to the public. American President Barack Obama learnt this as the backlash against him increases in the face of failed policies and broken election promises. Powerful indeed is the memory of people who are denied what they have been promised.
Obama was not allowed to forget the promises he broke, and PAS will not forget that the DAP once gave it carte blanche to pursue the hudud agenda. The people have not forgotten all of the DAP’s chest beating over the hudud issue. Their discovery that DAP forsook its integrity will have its repercussions for the social democratic party.
