THE DOOR IS OPEN! Leave Pakatan if it means so little to you - Tony Pua tells 'hudud at any costs' Pas

KUALA LUMPUR - DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua has suggested that PAS leave Pakatan Rakyat (PR) if it considers the pact too inconsequential to merit consultation ahead of the Islamist party’s plan to implement hudud in Kelantan.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said PAS was again disregarding its PR allies by refusing to share details on the Kelantan government's plan to amend the Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993, adding it demonstrated the party’s insistence on unilateral action.

Pua reminded PAS that while it was its prerogative to pursue its hudud goal, the Islamist party has committed itself to PR and agreed that any decision requires the consensus of all three component parties.

“The failure to respect the coalition and consult on all's views only points to the fact that it has no respect for for its partners.

“Since the DAP and PKR mean so little to PAS, then perhaps PAS should just remove itself from Pakatan Rakyat,” Pua told Malay Mail Online.

PKR’s Latheefa Koya also agreed that the PAS government in Kelantan has a duty to consult all parties given the contentiousness surrounding hudud.

Accusing the Kelantan PAS government of irresponsibility, the PKR supreme council member noted that the state leaders even failed to inform the party's central leadership of the proposed amendments.

“Firstly, the Kelantan state has not even shared with its own party's central committee members, what more its allies in Pakatan.

“As a responsible government claiming to adhere democratic principles, this is a clear breach especially when it involves such a controversial matter like the Hudud,” she told Malay Mail Online.

But unlike Pua, Latheefa believed that PAS as whole should not be blamed for the hudud debacle as the initiative to enforce the Islamic penal code stemmed from the party's Kelantan leadership.

The Kelantan chapter of PAS is closely aligned to the conservative ulama class that holds the most powerful positions in PAS.

Latheefa said PR is still discussing how to ensure the the pact's survival, despite suggestions by some DAP leaders that the hudud crisis could be “the last straw” that finally break the opposition pact.

Yesterday, PAS information chief Datuk Mahfuz Omar said the current hudud standoff will not cause PR to collapse, claiming that PAS and DAP have agreed to disagree on hudud and that each party has the right to pursue its goals through the democratic process in Parliament.

“And if Parliament rejects it, then Kelantan will not be able to implement the Shariah Enactment. This means PAS must accept if Parliament rejects Kelantan’s move to implement the Shariah Enactment,” Mahfuz told reporters at the party’s headquarters here.

PR has barely recovered from the recent impasse over the appointment of the Selangor mentri besar, but is now mired in yet another crisis following plans by the Kelantan state government to table and pass amendments to the Kelantan Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II.

The move is in preparation for PAS’s plan to table in Parliament a private member’s bill to amend the Federal Constitution and allow Kelantan to implement hudud law in the state.

In Islamic jurisprudence, hudud covers crimes such as theft, robbery, adultery, rape and sodomy. Punishment for the crimes is severe, including amputation, flogging and death by stoning. - Malay Mail