Hadi not an Umno stooge, PAS info chief tells DAP
(Malay Mail Online) – PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s fervent push to implement hudud in Kelantan does not make him an Umno stooge, the Islamist party’s information chief Datuk Mahfuz Omar insisted today.
The Pokok Sena MP slammed PAS ally DAP for accusing his party chief of cooperating with Umno on hudud, saying such a claim was baseless and wholly untrue.
“Just because of the private members’ bill, it does not mean a cooperation with Umno.
“Just like how DAP agreed with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on the MH17 motion in Parliament, it did not mean that we were in cahoots with BN or Umno,” Mahfuz said at a news conference here.
“DAP should behave more like proper statesmen in addressing its differences with PAS,” he added.
The federal lawmaker said he will ask PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali to convene a party leadership meeting soon to decide on the party’s stand following DAP’s attack against Hadi.
“Our decision on DAP’s stand will be a collective one,” Mahfuz said.
Earlier today, DAP’s Lim Guan Eng said Hadi should leave Pakatan Rakyat (PR) if he insists on wanting to implement hudud in Kelantan.
The DAP secretary-general said that Hadi’s unilateral action in submitting two private member’s bills in Parliament did not “reflect” the actions of a PR leader.
“Leave PR if you want to pursue hudud. Hadi promised PR before any tabling of the amendments he would get the blessings from PR leadership council,” Lim told reporters when met at the Parliament lobby here.
“We are not questioning his democratic right to table the bills, but do it as an MP not as a member of Pakatan Rakyat,” Lim added.
In a statement this morning, DAP pilloried Hadi for his party’s hudud push, saying it will no longer work with him even as it vowed to remain in PR.
The DAP’s central executive committee that met last night accused Hadi of cooperating with Umno on hudud, in violation of the pact’s common consensus and Common Policy Framework.
The decision will prevent the PR presidential council from carrying out any policy decisions as consensus agreement is required, but will leave the state administrations of Selangor and Penang undisturbed.
On March 19, PAS-ruled Kelantan passed key amendments to its Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 in a move to enable the eventual implementation of hudud in the Malay-majority east coast state.
Hadi last week served notice to Parliament on the proposed Bill but BN’s law minister Datuk Nancy Shukri said it may not make it into the order paper for the current session as there are many others on the schedule.
With DAP and PKR’s rejection, PAS and its 21 MPs in the lower House must rely on all of Umno’s MPs plus more from other non-Muslim parties in order to get a simple majority of 112 votes to get the Bill passed.
