PAS pins blame on DAP for anti-hudud outcry
Kelantan deputy MB says futile to discuss hudud in Pakatan if DAP keeps on opposing
(Free Malaysia Today) – Kelantan PAS has pinned the blame squarely on the DAP for driving the Pakatan Rakyat to the brink of a break-up and causing a rise in public outcry over the proposed implementation of hudud criminal penalties.
Deputy Menteri Besar Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said the DAP’s continued and steadfast opposition to hudud made it futile for PAS to try to discuss the issue within Pakatan Rakyat.
PKR and DAP have both said they would not support the PAS plans to change the law and allow hudud penalties to be imposed. They said hudud was not part of the common policy platform agreed on by all three partners. PAS had also failed to provide Pakatan leaders with details of the amendements to syariah law that were approved in Kelantan last week.
In an interview with Malaysiakini, Mohd Amar rebuffed criticism that PAS had failed to discuss its plans with its Pakatan partners.
“I have met top Pakatan Rakyat leaders at least four times on the matter,” he was quoted as saying. “And in all our meetings, they cannot defend their arguments and they say that our hudud plans are not part of the (Pakatan) common policy framework.”
Mohd Amar agreed that hudud was not part of the common policy, but pointed out that PAS had enacted syariah law in Kelantan in 1993. “Back then there was no Pakatan. You cannot expect us to forgo what we fight for.”
He said the coalition partners had agreed to disagree on the matter and that Pakatan would not prevent PAS from continuing with its political agenda.
“So this is not a new thing, it’s an amendment to an enactment which had came into existence in 1993,” he told Malaysiakini.
Mohd Amar said the DAP’s steadfast opposition made it futile to discuss matters in Pakatan meetings.
