PKR MP is puzzled by MCA's continued boasting over Act 355

PKR's Alor Setar MP Gooi Hsiao Leung said he is utterly puzzled by MCA leaders who continue to boast about their ability to oppose amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 or Act 355.

The motion was tabled in Parliament by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang last Thursday but the debate was deferred to the next sitting in July.

Gooi said recently these leaders, including their president Liow Tiong Lai, have been issuing self-praising statements, celebrating and congratulating themselves on a job well done.

He said they deem themselves successful in opposing the amendments tabled by Hadi.

"I am totally puzzled as to what MCA is celebrating about when it was they and other BN component parties, in government, who had paved the way clear for Hadi to table his motion to amend Act 355 in Parliament in the first place.

"Let us be unmistakably clear, the BN government as gatekeepers, were the only ones with the keys to unlock the doors of Parliament in allowing Hadi to pass through and table his motion," Gooi said in a statement.

MCA ought to condemn speaker

Gooi's remarks followed Penang Chief Minister cum DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng who said not only PAS but other BN component parties like MCA were duped by Umno into thinking that the amendments could be debated.

Gooi noted that the BN government had approved Hadi’s motion to be tabled.

However, he added, MCA ought to have strongly condemned the speaker for abusing his powers in not allowing a debate to proceed and a vote to be taken on the bill.

"But it would appear that MCA is very happy to be let off the hook from having to debate and formally register their objections and vote against the bill in the House."

Gooi noticed that this was the first time, at least in this 13th parliamentary sitting, where a motion after it was tabled and allowed to proceed, was stopped half way through without completion.

"The speaker’s action in stopping the debate in what was one of the most controversial and nationally divisive bill in the country was clearly a subversion of our country’s practice of parliamentary democracy."

Gooi suggested that Hadi not only thank Umno but MCA and other BN component parties for not opposing and allowing his motion to be tabled in Parliament, without a debate and a vote.

"No doubt with this huge political victory scored by PAS in Parliament, MCA and other BN component parties have armed PAS and Umno with their battle cry for the next general election," he added.

'This is through the use of religion to divide the nation further in the hopes of winning the general election."- Mkini