As tensions grow, PKR says will mediate DAP-PAS hudud row

By MT Webmaster On Mar 25, 2015

(Malay Mail Online) – PKR said today it will lead attempts to mend deteriorating ties between DAP and PAS caused by the secular party’s attacks against Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang over the hudud controversy.

PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli stressed that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) cannot function without all the three parties, and that reconciliation should be the pact’s top priority.

“Yes,” Rafizi told reporters when asked if PKR would mediate and try to resolve the spat between DAP and PAS. “Pakatan is like a tripod, we cannot survive without a leg of the tripod.

“I think the best thing that can happen for the three parties is to come back, trash it out behind closed doors,” he added.

Rafizi declined to comment further, saying that PKR will issue an official statement on the matter soon and that it will meet with PAS and DAP separately.

Yesterday, DAP pilloried PAS president Hadi for his party’s hudud push, saying it will no longer work with him even as it vowed to remain in the Pakatan Rakyat pact.

The DAP’s central executive committee that met on Monday night accused Hadi of cooperating with Umno on hudud, in violation of the pact’s common consensus and Common Policy Framework.

It also told Hadi to leave PR if he insists on continuing his bid to enforce hudud in Kelantan against the wishes of the two ally parties.

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.