Putting the country’s interests first

Umno still owes us an explanation on its cooperation with PAS and whether this will end following its decision to drop the bill.

COMMENT

By Sin Chew Daily

Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman, announced after the BN Supreme Council meeting on Wednesday that the government had decided not to table the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 Act 355 amendment bill (Act 355 amendment) thanks to the BN spirit.

The announcement came as a relief to Malaysians who are against the amendment bill. This shows that the bill, which was set to further undermine our secular system and rock the nation-building foundation, will not be a government bill.

The Act 355 amendment bill will therefore remain a private member’s bill as originally submitted by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang.

This means the tabling of the bill will now be decided by Parliament Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia according to the parliamentary agenda schedule.

The government’s decision not to table the bill is a move in the right direction achieved through a BN consensus consistent with the BN spirit.

Prior to this, Umno’s insistence on taking over the Act 355 amendment bill had sparked widespread concern among other BN component parties, believing the move could cause a split within the coalition and destroy the country’s constitutional democracy.

The government’s subsequent decision to drop the bill shows that Umno is indeed willing to listen to the views of its allies. It was a smart choice on the part of Umno to put the interests of the country and her people above its own political agenda having weighed the pros and cons of the move.

PAS’ stand on Act 355 and the eventual establishment of an Islamic state has been very clear. Even if the bill is not tabled in the current parliamentary session, it doesn’t mean the party will not try again next time to push it through.

PAS had earlier secured the help of Umno to table the private member’s bill before the government’s bills but this was later postponed owing to some reasons before Umno declared that the government would take over the bill. We hope such things will not happen again in future.

Anyway, Umno still owes us an explanation on its cooperation with PAS and whether this will end following its decision to drop the bill.

As Najib has yet to clearly state BN’s stand on the Act 355 amendment bill, there is still room for both sides to cooperate in future.

If the amendment bill eventually gets tabled in the Dewan Rakyat, Umno will very likely support Hadi Awang’s private bill. As such, other BN components must not lower their guard and must continue to stay firm to ensure that Umno adheres to the BN spirit.

Meanwhile, the opposition camp also has an inevasible duty to make sure that PAS will not get its way. It is hoped that Pakatan Harapan component parties will clearly state their common stand on this matter and wholly thwart PAS’ ambition of amending Act 355 towards establishing an Islamic state.

PAS used to be a member of the opposition alliance, and had won the support of voters thanks to the endorsement of its then Pakatan Rakyat allies. Although PAS and the rest of the Pakatan parties have gone separate ways due to their divergent philosophies, there is no way these former allies should wash their hands off this whole matter.

While DAP, PKR and Amanah have drawn the line between themselves and the Islamist party, individual parties still struggle to cling on to some ambiguous relations with it for their own political gains.

It is hoped that Pakatan parties will expressly declare their stand to uphold secularism, democracy and equality in their respective party platforms, and honour their words so as to win the approval and respect of the voters.

Sin Chew Daily is a local vernacular publication -FMT