PAS leaders defend Hadi, tell DAP to exit Pakatan instead

(Malay Mail Online) – PAS leaders defended today party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang (pic) in his push for hudud law, saying the DAP had no right to ask him to leave Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

The PAS leaders also stressed that the Islamist party remained committed to the federal opposition pact and that DAP should leave PR if the secular party disagrees with the implementation of the Islamic penal code in Kelantan.

“I see that the DAP is lying to Malaysians to reject PAS from Pakatan by using hudud as an issue,” PAS MP Nik Mohamed Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz told reporters when met at the Parliament lobby.

“Don’t use hudud as an issue to break us up. If DAP feels the shariah enactments are the cause of Pakatan breaking up, DAP should leave Pakatan,” added the Pasir Mas MP, who is also the son of late PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat.

“We will not leave Pakatan because we love Malaysia and love unity, and we want to make Malaysia a country which is democratic and adheres to new politics,” Nik Abduh said.

PAS’ Bachok MP Ahmad Marzuk Shaari told the DAP to respect PAS’s opinions and rights on issues like hudud, saying a “difference of opinion” did not mean both parties could not work together.

“We have to celebrate our differences. We cannot make threats to leave Pakatan every time there is a problem,” he told Malay Mail Online.

“Non-Muslims who don’t live in Kelantan should not say things about hudud,” the PAS leader stressed.

Kota Raja MP Siti Mariah Mahmud said it would be difficult to carry on ties with the DAP after the party announced it will cut off all forms of communication with PAS president Hadi.

“It’s (a) weird, difficult position. You want to sever the head but maintain ties with the tail? How?” she questioned.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said earlier today, ahead of PAS party elections scheduled in June, that Hadi should leave PR if he insists on implementing hudud in Kelantan.

Lim, who is also Penang chief minister, 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.

DAP pilloried Hadi today 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 a consensus is required in decision-making, but it 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 private member’s bills, but de facto law minister Datuk Nancy Shukri said they 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 bills passed.