Reveal details on hudud, MCA tells DAP

Anisah Shukry

MCA wants details on DAP-PAS common policy on hudud as proof it is not a ruse to mislead the public.

PETALING JAYA: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng must clarify Pakatan Rakyat’s common policy on hudud to prove that the Chinese-dominated party is against implementating the Islamic criminal law in the country, MCA said today.

MCA vice-president Chor Chee Heung expressed doubts over DAP’s common policy with its Islamist party ally PAS, saying that further details were needed to convince the public that it was not merely “an excuse to mislead the people and trick them”.

“The public has repeatedly urged DAP to clarify their stand on PAS’ attempt to implement hudud law, but unfortunately, DAP tends to shut their mouth and speak nothing whenever any issue on hudud law is raised.

“Under public pressure, Guan Eng has used this common policy to explain the relationship between DAP and PAS, trying to twist the fact that DAP has allowed PAS to implement hudud,” Chor said in a statement today.

Chor stressed that the policy DAP had revealed was not consistent with the details and explanations given by the party.

“If the common policy which Guan Eng is talking about is the Buku Jingga, then the people should ask why is there a ban on licensed betting, liquor, the sale of lottery tickets, various forms of entertainment and the separation of men and women in Kelantan despite the fact that these policies are not listed in the Buku Jingga,” he said.

Yesterday, PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali, flanked by the opposition pact’s second-tier leadership here, had said the hudud debacle was a “non-issue” but was coy when asked to respond to DAP chairman Karpal Singh’s statement that PAS was backpedalling on its own “transformation”.

Karpal had said that any attempt by PAS to espouse hudud law in the country now would reflect poorly on the decisions made during the last PAS muktamar – shifting its agenda for an Islamic state to a more inclusive “welfare state”.

Today, Chor reminded the public that DAP had rejoined Pakatan in 2008 despite declaring that it would not be a part of the alliance as long as PAS maintained its goal of establishing a theocratic state.
“It is thus obvious that Pakatan parties do not share the same policies and that they are only together because they need each other in the political field, and that sometime in the future, they will also break up because of political benefits, leaving Malaysians to be the victims of their reckless ways,” he warned.