Harapan Baru insists won’t U-turn on hudud like PAS
(Malay Mail Online) – Gerakan Harapan Baru (HB) will not make Islamic penal law the prospective party’s main agenda as it wants to focus on more pressing issues affecting the country such as political reforms as well as social and economic justice.
One leader of the splinter movement also insisted that they will be consistent on this, saying this clearly differentiated it from PAS.
“We won’t be doing a U- turn, not like PAS saying in the past that hudud is not a priority and then suddenly making it into something that is the only issue of concern.
“For Harapan Baru, it is not a priority, from our understanding it is the last item to be implemented when everything else is in place,” GHB leader and Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
“There are other issues like national unity, the economy, political conflicts which has to be addressed. That would be the priority,” he said.
Khalid pointed out that there were many conditions that needed to be fulfilled before hudud can even be implemented, including amendments to the Federal Constitution as well as majority support from Malaysians.
“It is not something you push for without the support of the whole of Malaysia. It is a long process.
“But in the event we do achieve the majority support required (for hudud) then we do not see how DAP can stop it. But if there is no majority support it can’t be pushed through,” Khalid explained.
GHB, the precursor for a new party by PAS’s progressive faction, has defended the right to push for hudud law in the country, but says it will not be its main priority for the time being as the main focus should be on rebuilding a “vibrant democracy” in Malaysia.
But allies have skirted the issue of how they will avoid the same disagreement that caused the disintegration of Pakatan Rakyat, in the event that GHB seeks to implement hudud.
GHB secretary-general Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said recently while that hudud has a critical role to play it cannot be deliberated or considered before a good, transparent government is in place.
“While hudud has its critical role in the entire setup of an Islamic society, its position is likened by lslamic jurists or Fuqaha to be that of a ‘gate’ that safeguards and protects the security of the house.
“In the same vein and extending that analogy, our urgent priority is to put the ruined house in order first,” he told Malay Mail Online recently.
But the former PAS research director also said that GHB would do its best to “convince” its allies to give the Islamic penal code a chance, not only because it is God’s command but because there were convincing comparative global evidences to show that some aspects of hudud are more effective in addressing and reducing crimes like theft and robbery.
PAS’s renewed hudud push led to direct confrontations with PKR and DAP, and reached a crisis point when the Islamist party’s president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang tabled a private member’s bill to allow hudud to be implemented in Kelantan.
Shortly after that, PAS decided during its June 6 muktamar to cut ties with the DAP.
The decision later led to the DAP declaring PR’s death as a coalition.
