'PAS gets divine reward for Act 355 effort'

PAS may have hit speed bumps with the government's refusal to table the proposed amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965, or Act 355, but the party is already being rewarded with divine blessings, Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali said.

"PAS gets a divine reward (pahala), even though it has yet to succeed," Ibrahim told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

He lamented that PAS was previously accused of not walking the talk but when the party did, it faced obstacles.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said the proposed amendments did not receive consensus from BN and therefore the government would not be tabling it in Parliament.

Najib said it would be up to House Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia to decide whether the proposed amendments would be allowed to be debated in the House.

PAS has said that it intends to push ahead with the proposed amendment on its own.

Ibrahim said that in the interest of Islam, Pandikar should allow the matter to be debated.

"In the name of Islam, I appeal to the Dewan Rakyat speaker to allow Hadi's Act 355 motion to be brought to the floor," he said.

He added that if Pandikar did not prioritise the motion on the proposed amendment, which was put forward by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (photo), it may not see the light in the current Parliament sitting, which ends next Thursday.

Ibrahim, who is former Pasir Mas MP, said allowing the matter to be debated in Parliament would also allow the people to know the position of their MPs.

He said Perkasa would write to Pandikar to appeal for the motion to be debated.

"There is no reason for Pandikar to disallow it as it is part of the democratic process," he said.

In May last year, Parliament was caught by surprise when the government allowed Hadi's motion to table a private member's bill to amend Act 355.

However, Hadi chose to postpone the motion, citing the need to give time to other MPs to study the proposed amendment.

The original amendment sought to grant the syariah courts more powers to mete out punishments without limits, with the exception of the death sentence.

After negotiations between PAS and the Umno-led government, Hadi agreed to amend the proposal.

It now calls for the punishment limit that syariah courts can mete out, from three years’ imprisonment, RM5,000 fine and six strokes of the rotan, to be raised to 30 years’ imprisonment, RM100,000 fine and 100 strokes of the rotan.

Hadi subsequently tabled the amended motion in Parliament in November last year, but he again postponed the debate, citing the need to give time to MPs to examine the changes made.

Najib, at the Umno general assembly last November, announced that the government would take over Hadi’s bill.

On March 18, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi confirmed this for the present parliamentary sitting, before the decision was retracted at the eleventh hour.-Mkini