PAS shouldn’t have joined Pakatan if hudud was all it wanted, Kit Siang says
(Malay Mail Online) – Lim Kit Siang said today that PAS should never have agreed to form the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact with PKR and DAP in 2008 if it had always felt that the implementation of hudud was far more important than the political cooperation.
The DAP adviser agreed with former deputy prime minister Tun Musa Hitam’s remarks yesterday that DAP and PKR always knew of PAS’s position on hudud, but said the veteran Umno leader was wrong to imply that the parties should have expected their Islamic partner would one day bulldoze the implementation of the law.
“We had expected the top PAS leadership to be sincere and truthful when they committed themselves to the PR Common Policy Framework as the basis of the political struggle and objectives of all PR component parties, putting aside all their political differences on other issues,” Lim said in a statement here.
He pointed out that when the framework was established on September 28, 2011, all three parties had agreed that although it was unreasonable to force PAS to abandon its Islamic agenda, the parties would prioritise its joint agreement and the implementation of any policy must first get the green light of their respective party leaderships.
But despite hudud’s absence from the framework, PAS proceeded earlier this week to table key amendments to the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 to pave the way for the eventual implementation of the Islamic criminal justice system in the state.
The Islamic party is also now hoping to table a private members’ Bill in Parliament to enable Kelantan to enforce the law, despite fierce resistance from its partners in DAP and PKR.
On February 8 this year, a hastily-convened PR presidential council meeting saw PAS ordered to temporarily freeze its plans to table the hudud amendments in Kelantan.
“We had expected all PR parties and leaders to be honourable and honest about their commitments and undertakings in Pakatan Rakyat,” Lim lamented today.
He noted that in defending PAS’s violation of PR’s Common Policy Framework, party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had claimed that his party’s vision is not just 2020 but “the afterlife”.
Lim said he respects Hadi’s vision but reminded the leader that it would be un-Islamic to achieve such a dream by breaking undertakings and violating agreements.
“If Hadi’s ‘Vision Afterlife’ takes a higher priority than all other visions, then he should be frank, truthful and sincere and should not have taken PAS into Pakatan Rakyat and commit PAS to the PR Common Policy Framework or allowed PAS candidates to contest in the 13th general elections under the PR banner,” he said.
Lim also recalled a recent remark by PAS’s new spiritual adviser Haron Din who said that hudud is far more important than the party’s PR cooperation.
While he said Haron is entitled to his views, he insisted that the position had not been taken by the latter’s predecessor, the late Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.
“In any event, if what Haron Din said was the view of the top PAS leadership, then they should not have joined DAP and PKR to form the Pakatan Rakyat in 2008, swear allegiance to the PR Common Policy Framework, and misled Malaysian voters regardless of race and religion in the 13th General Elections into believing that hudud was not in the PAS and PR list of priorities,” Lim said.
