Told to butt out on hudud, DAP MP fires back at PAS -April 24, 2014

DAP will openly fight PAS if the Islamist party insists on trying to remove the constitutional safeguards that prevent it from enforcing hudud, Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo said today.

Criticising his ally for now claiming that it only pledged not to push for Malaysia to be declared an Islamic state, the DAP leader said PAS was disingenuous to say that introducing the Islamic penal code in Kelantan was not part of its commitment to the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact.

“That is a weak excuse to avoid the truth which is the fact that all along hudud was never part of the Pakatan agenda announced in 2011 which applies across the board,” he said in a statement today.

Gobind, whose late father Karpal Singh had been one of the staunchest opponents towards hudud and an Islamic state, also took aim at PAS for saying its allies PKR and PAS have no right to speak out against its renewed push to implement the Islamic law.

Reminding PAS that it made its gains in Election 2008 and 2013 by being a part of the tripartite pact, Gobind said Malaysians gave the party and its allies support as a whole that did not include hudud, rather than as individual entities.

He told PAS to expect “full, firm and open resistance” from DAP towards its attempts to introduce two private members’ bills ostensible aimed at removing clauses in the Federal Constitution that prevent it from enforcing Kelantan’s Syariah Criminal Code Enactment that is passed in 1993.

Reminding PAS that it made its gains in Election 2008 and 2013 by being a part of the tripartite pact, Gobind said Malaysians gave the party and its allies support as a whole that did not include hudud, rather than as individual entities.

He told PAS to expect “full, firm and open resistance” from DAP towards its attempts to introduce two private members’ bills ostensible aimed at removing clauses in the Federal Constitution that prevent it from enforcing Kelantan’s Syariah Criminal Code Enactment that is passed in 1993.

“The DAP will not be cowed by threats. We will continue to do what is right and speak up against hudud as it is clearly unconstitutional and against the Pakatan Rakyat agenda,” Gobind added.

Yesterday, Deputy Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah had told PKR and DAP to stop disputing PAS’s aim of rolling out hudud in Kelantan, saying it only agreed not to push for the Islamic penal law at the federal level.

Today has seen a marked increase in acrimony between the two ideologically-opposed PR partners over their long-standing difference on the Islamic penal law.

Earlier, DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang also told PAS that pushing for hudud has never gained it significant Malay support; rather, he said it would have cost both the party and PR dearly had this been an issue ahead of Election 2013.

In Islamic jurisprudence, hudud covers crimes such as theft, robbery, adultery, rape, sodomy, making unproven accusations of adultery, causing physical hurt, drinking intoxicants, apostasy, and acts contrary to Islamic belief.

PAS announced plans this month to introduce two private members’ bills in Parliament to allow it to enforce hudud in Kelantan.

But in doing so, it again resurrected the on-and-off conflict between DAP and PAS that dates back to the 1990s and which had kept the two from co-operating for decades.

PAS’s attempt to push for hudud is not new. Previous attempts by PAS to table similar bills have been blocked by the BN-dominated Parliament and have never been voted on.

In all previous attempts, PAS had been frustrated by BN tactics to prevent any vote by employing a “talking out” tactic where BN MPs have been allowed to speak for an extended period of time to prevent such private members’ bills from even being debated. The filibuster-style tactic was frequently used when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was still prime minister.

But Umno in recent times has openly expressed support for PAS’s latest bid, even as the Islamist parties allies outwardly reject or remain non-committal to its professed goals.