Now I understand why Liow and Mah dare not accept my advice that they requisition an emergency meeting of BN Supreme Council to reaffirm BN policy opposing Hadi’s hudud bill

Now I understand why the MCA President Liow Tiong Lai and the Gerakan President Mah Siew Keong dare not accept my advice, made freely and publicly over a half dozen times since May 26, that MCA and Gerakan should requisition an emergency meeting of Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to resolve once-and-for-all the Barisan Nasional spat caused by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Azalina Said Othman for her Ministerial motion in Parliament on May 26 to fast-track Hadi’s hudud bill.

Liow and Mah’s reluctance had been all the more astounding as such a Barisan Nasional Supreme Council emergency meeting would be able to reaffirm the Barisan Nasional policy opposing Hadi’s hudud bill as it was the unanimous consensus of all the Barisan Nasional leaders on this issue in March 2015 which was reiterated in the Cabinet meeting of May 20, 2016.

Clearly, Liow and the other two MCA Ministers have not learnt from the lesson of MCA’s 2013 General Election debacle which reduced MCA from the second biggest Barisan Nasional party to a puny “7/11 party” (as compared to winning 28 MPs and 68 SAs in 1999 GE) – because MCA Ministers and leaders make fierce and ferocious statements and even threats all over the coutnry but behave like mice in Cabinet and Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meetings.

Hadi’s hudud bill is a classic case study of the cowardice, hypocrisy and opportunism of MCA Ministers and leaders.

MCA Ministers are going all over the country issuing threats to resign from the Cabinet if Hadi’s hudud bill is passed in Parliament at the end of the year, but they dare not do a simple and basic thing – to requisition an emergency meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to repudiate Azalina’s Ministerial action to fast-track Hadi’s hudud motion and to end the Barisan Nasional controversy over Hadi’s hudud bill as it would not see the lighrt of day for debate in Parliament if there is no second Ministerial motion to fast-track Hadi’s hudud bill in Parliament at the end of the year.

Now all Malaysians know the reason for the refusal of MCA and Gerakan Presidents to the simple act of requisitioning an emergency meeting of the BN Supreme Council meeting – for clearly they know from the beginning that the problem is not Azalina but the two top leaders of the Barisan Nasional, who had shown utter contempt for MCA, Gerakan, MIC and the Sarawak and Sabah component parties of BN by giving unilateral approval for Hadi’s hudud motion.

This has been revealed by none other than Azalina herself, who said two days ago that it was the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi who had ordered her to move the Ministerial motion to fast-track Hadi’s hudud bill.

Azalina made this shocking revelation two days ago when she was asked in Sungai Besar if she had cabinet approval before she moved the motion to bump up Hadi’s Bill from the bottom of the queue to the top of House business on May 26.

She said: “In my job as minister in charge of parliament, I report to the leader of the majority, who is the prime minister, and I report to the chief whip, who is the deputy PM.

“So the instructions I got to push it (motion to table Hadi’s Bill) from number 15 to number one would definitely be (from) the leader of the majority and chief whip because that is the procedural requirement for Parliament.”

Azalina explained that she got the directive from the prime minister when she reported to him after she was informed by the Dewan Rakyat speaker that the minister in charge of religion, Jamil Khir Baharom, had written to inform the House that the government had no objection to a debate on the bill.

Many questions demand answer, including the following three:

Firstly, who is Jamil Khir to write to Parliament to say that the government had no objection to a debate on Hadi’s hudud bill? Did Jamil get the green-light from the Cabinet, including MCA, Gerakan, MIC and Ministers from the Sarawak and Sabah component BN parties, or do their consent and consensus on this important constitutional issue utterly irrelevant and inconsequential in Barisan Nasional?

Secondly, did the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister direct Azalina to move the Ministerial motion to “bump up” Hadi’s hudud bill, ahead of all official government business?

Najib and Zahid must speak up and explain their actions why the consensus and traditional basic stand of Barisan Nasional parties on Hadi’s hudud bill are completely irrelevant and inconsequential or had they received the “green light” from Liow and Mah who colluded in the Najib-Hadi plot on Hadi’s hudud bill?

Thirdly, why did Azalina take the very unusual stand of distancing herself from the contents of Hadi’s Bill and the government’s decision to allow it to be tabled, saying that she was only involved in parliamentary procedures.

“My role does not relate to the content of the motion. I oversee regulations, so I only take care of the procedure … because the motion was no 15 and it has to go under no 1 in between government motions.”

This is real garbage. Is Azalina saying that she would move the Ministerial motion to fast-track Hadi’s motion even if she opposed its contents, that she is just robot without a mind of her own?

Liow’s announcement on Sungai Besar by-election Nomination Day that MCA would campaign against Hadi’s hudud bill in the twin by-elections on June 18 makes no sense or meaning whatsoever in the context of Najib and Zahid being the main protagonists in the fast-track of Hadi’s Hudud Bill in Parliament on May 26.

Why are the MCA and Gerakan Ministers afraid to confront Najib and Zahid with Azalina’s revelation and requisition an emergency meeting of Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to get to the bottom of the Najib-Hadi Hudud Bill.

The MCA and Gerakan Ministers’ explanation do not add up, and they should come to Sungai Besar and the Kuala Kangsar by-election to explain to the voters why they dare not requisition for an emergency meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to resolve the Barisan Nasional spat over Hadi’s hudud motion once and for all?

Or is the Cabinet and the BN Supreme Council not a meeting of equals, with the Prime Minister at most primus inter pares, but between employer and employees or between the leader and the led?

Let the MCA and Gerakan Ministers hold public meetings in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar to explain and justify their failure and continued cowardice to requisition an emergency meetin go BN Supreme Council to end the controversy over Hadi’s hudud bill once-and-for-all!

Lim Kit Siang DAP Parliamentary Leader & MP for Gelang Patah