Liow Tiong Tai and Mah Siew Keong should stop being pawns of UMNO-PAS political plot to polarize Malaysians into Muslims and non-Muslims and make “hudud” the primary issue in the two upcoming Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections

Although MCA president Liow Tiong Lai and Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong have threatened to resign from the Cabinet if PAS President, Hadi Awang’s hudud bill is passed in Parliament, both of them made it very clear that MCA and Gerakan would remain in the Barisan Nasional coalition.

It is quite unfathomable why two highly-educated persons like Liow and Mah, who have risen to become Cabinet Ministers in the land cannot see the gross contradiction in their positions.

Be that as it may, Liow and Mah should stop being pawns of a deep UMNO-PAS political plot to polarize Malaysians into Muslims and non-Muslims and make “hudud” the primary issue in the two upcoming Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections next month.

There is clearly a concerted attempt to create a “hothouse” political atmosphere in the country by polarizing Malaysians into Muslims and non-Muslims over the “hudud” issue, after the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, moved an unprecedented Ministerial motion in Parliament after lunch last Thursday to give priority to Hadi’s private member’s bill motion.

Why did Liow and Mah ignore the fact that Azalina’s Ministerial motion violated the Cabinet decision the previous week and went against the consensus of all Barisan Nasional leaders reached in March 2015 if the Azalina’s action is not part of a political plot to make “hudud” the primary issue in the two by-elections in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar, overshadowing all other national issues, in particular the RM55 billion 1MDB global financial scandal.

This a dangerous and irresponsible political game as the real issues in the two by-elections are not “hudud” but the 1MDB global financial scandal, the premiership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak who has lost the moral compass of being able to distinguish between right from wrong, GST and a whole host of issues which have seen the country going backwards instead of forward as a united, harmonious, competitive, progressive and democratic country.

Liow and Mah should not continue to be pawns of the UMNO-PAS political plot to create an artificial national crisis over Hadi’s hudud bill, when the problem created by Azalina’s unprecedented Ministerial motion in Parliament last Thursday could be easily resolved.

All that Liow and Mah need to do is to requisition a Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting to repudiate Azalina’s Ministerial motion in Parliament as doubly unacceptable, firstly violating the Cabinet decision the previous week; and secondly, violating the consensus of Barisan Nasional leaders in March 2015.

With such a BN Supreme Council emergency meeting to reiterate the Barisan Nasional consensus of March 2015, the problem created by Azalina in Parliament last Thursday would be resolved immediately and fully, and there would be no need to create an artificial national crisis polarizing Malaysians into Muslims and non-Muslims, purportedly over the “hudud” issue till the end of the year, and there would be no need for the rigmarole and “drama” of empty threats to resign as Ministers if the “hudud” bill is passed at the end of the year.

My open invitation to Liow on my preparedness to meet him stands, as I really want to know whether it is true that the Malaysian Prime Minister never told him beforehand about the Ministerial motion by Azalina last Thursday to give priority to Hadi’s hudud motion.

As I had said, if Najib had told him beforehand about Azalina’s Ministerial motion, Liow should explain what he had done to stop Azalina from proceeding with the Ministerial motion, which doubly violated the Cabinet decision the previous week and the Barisan Nasional consensus in March last year.

Liow must clarify the political mystery of his ignorance of Azalina’s Ministerial motion as a day earlier last Wednesday, a Minister and head of a Barisan Nasional component party from Sabah had written an urgent letter to Najib expressing the opposition of the MPs of his party to any proposal to prioritise Hadi’s hudud motion.