MCA, Gerakan, MIC and Sabah/Sarawak BN Ministers should stop “play footsie” with Hadi’s unconstitutional RUU 355 and make a clear-cut decision at tomorrow Cabinet that BN will neither take over Hadi’s private member’s bill nor give it priority for voting in March/April Parliament
Tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting will be the last one before the resumption of Parliament for a month-long meeting from March 6 to April 6.
MCA, Gerakan, MIC and Sabah/Sarawak BN Ministers should stop “play footsie” with PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s unconstitutional RUU 355 and make a clear-cut decision at tomorrow Cabinet meeting that the Barisan Nasional will neither take over Hadi’s private member’s bill nor give it priority for voting in March/April Parliament.
The rigmarole and charade of BN government giving priority to Hadi’s private member’s bill motion even over official government business in Parliament, yet not putting the private member’s bill motion to a vote, has gone on long enough and distracted attention from urgent and important national business – whether it be the unprecedented weakening of the ringgit and the sufferings caused to low-income Malaysians because of all-round price increases; the sense of insecurity despite claims by the authorities of the fall in the crime index; or the rampant corruption in the country climaxing in Malaysia ridiculed world-wide as a “global kleptocracy” because of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB kleptocratic money-laundering scandal.
There can be reason for the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and Sabah/Sarawak BN Ministers to continue with the charade over Hadi’s private member’s motion especially as two UMNO Ministers, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office) and Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan (International Trade and Industry Deputy Minister) have publicly admitted:
- That Hadi’s Private Member’s Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355) enabled the government to circumvent the due constitutional process, as requiring consensus from all states, the National Islamic Council and the Rulers’ Conference.
- BN component parties will not be able to object against amendments to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act (Act 355) once the relevant bill is taken over by the Federal Government as BN component parties are compelled to support the bill as part of the ruling coalition. (Ahmad Maslan)
This is what Jamil said: “You can’t bring it to the Rulers Conference if you don’t have consensus from 14 states, but a private member’s bill requires only one state or one person to table it.”
Jamil said that when Hadi’s private member’s bill motion moves to the second reading stage, it would be taken over by the government and read out by him.
I want to ask all the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and Sabah/Sarawak BN Ministers when they want to stop playing the role of the traditional three monkeys, “with eyes that see not, ears that hear not, and mouths that speak not”, on an issue which UMNO Ministers and leaders do not try very hard to hide – that UMNO’s support for Hadi’s private member’s bill is part of the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s gameplan to win Malay votes in the forthcoming 14th General Elections so that he could continue as Prime Minister and would not have to face the consequences for the largest kleptocratic scandal in the world - the 1MDB scandal which continues to make world headlines with new developments in some parts of the world, almost every other day?
Surely, the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and Sabah/Sarawak BN Ministers are aware of the stance of the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang that Malaysia’s infamy and ignominy as a global kleptocracy is immaterial so long as the Prime Minister is a Muslim, while UMNO has taken the reciprocal position that it could support Hadi’s private member’s bill although it is unconstitutional and runs counter to the core principles of nation-building as spelt out in the Malaysian Constitution.
As tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting is the last one before Parliament reconvenes on Monday, I would urge the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and Sabah/Sarawak Ministers not to abdicate from their national responsibilities and to insist that the Cabinet tomorrow must take a clear-cut position on two matters: that the Barisan National government will not give priority to Hadi private member’s bill in the March/April meeting of Parliament and that the Barisan Nasional government will not take over Hadi’s private member’s bill.