MCA to oppose 'hudud' until the end

MCA has pledged to oppose hudud until the end, party president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said, adding that this would be the party’s agenda despite the fact that it had only seven Members of Parliament (MP).

“On the other hand, DAP, which has 37 parliamentary seats, have disappointed their voters by remaining silent,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Liow said hudud contravened the Federal Constitution and must not be implemented in Malaysia.

“MCA will closely monitor PAS’ actions,” he said, adding that the party would do its best to protect the Federal Constitution and Malaysia’s multi-racial democratic system.
Liow also revealed that the Prime Minister will make an announcement regarding the hudud issue.
“We have clearly voiced out MCA’s stance against hudud in a Barisan National (BN) meeting today,” said Liow, who is also the Transport Minister.

BN chairman and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has yet to comment on the bill passed by Kelantan State Assembly yesterday.


Many believe Najib, deputy Muhyiddin, Liow and other BN component party leaders must 'sit down' to address the issue, which is seen could cause a major rift among them.

Umno, 'in general' supports hudud as it will strengthen Islam in Kelantan (and in the country) but the general perception of non-Malays is that it will adversely effect their daily life.


Meanwhile, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang will table a private members’ bill in Parliament in May to enable Kelantan to implement amendments to the state’s Hudud laws but the party’s secretary-general Mustafa Ali professed no knowledge of it.

“This is not within my knowledge and I know nothing about it,” Mustafa told The Malaysian Insider.

Hadi’s Hudud move in Parliament follows that of the party’s move in the Kelantan state assembly where the Shariah Criminal Code 11 1993 (Amendment 2015) was unanimously approved.

The Shariah Courts Act (Criminal Jurisdiction) 1965 limits shariah courts to a maximum penalty of RM3,000 in fines, five years’ jail and six strokes of the rotan, and this is seen as an impediment to implementing Hudud law in Kelantan.

Hadi’s move has drawn outrage from his Pakatan Rakyat (PR) allies PKR and DAP who say Hudud laws are not part of the PR’s common policy framework.

The DAP leadership will meet on Monday to decide on PAS’ continued participation in PR, a loose pact sealed after their 2008 elections victory which saw the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) lose its traditional two-thirds parliamentary super majority.
DAP Socialist Youth have already frozen ties with its counterparts in PAS after the Islamist party insisted it was within its rights to pursue the amendments to the Kelantan law.
PKR has said that Kelantan PAS should have honoured its commitment to its PR partners over pursuing its own right to push its plan for Hudud or the Islamic penal code in the state.

The PKR leadership said yesterday PAS had gone beyond the agreement with its PR allies to “agree to disagree” over Hudud by tabling an almost entirely new enactment in the Kelantan legislative assembly instead of a few changes as it originally said it would.

“While PKR respects the right and stance of the Kelantan state government to table this enactment, we would have preferred if the state government had also respected the consensus made earlier with Pakatan Rakyat,” read the statement.

The statement was signed by PKR president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, and other top party leaders.