Pakatan and hudud: A consensus that wasn’t

PAS insists on the “right to have an intention”, but DAP says it’s a futile agenda.

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Rakyat may have formally reached a consensus on the hudud issue, but the dust is far from settling, with PAS and DAP adamantly sticking to their opposite views.
After a lengthy meeting on Wednesday, Pakatan leaders decided that further discussions on hudud would have to be in line with the opposition bloc’s common ideology and policies. It was really a stalemate decision.
The matter has been put on hold because PAS remained insistent on eventually imposing hudud in Kelantan and DAP remained opposed to the idea.
PAS representatives from Kelantan, including Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat, have since said that they would continue to harbour the intention of instituting the hudud provisions of Islamic law in the state.
“No one can be denied the right to have an intention,” Kelantan executive councillor and PAS vice president Husam Musa said when FMT asked him to comment.
Does he agree that Kelantan PAS is now like a thorn in Pakatan’s side? “No,” he said.
“Of course there will be difficulties. And we have to accept the current situation. But if you have intentions of buying gold and have no money now, you wait till you have money.”
Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah, one of the deputy PAS commissioners for Kelantan, said he did not think that his party’s position as adversely affected Pakatan’s image. “Technically,” he claimed, “Pakatan’s stand allows the state government to pursue its hudud agenda.
“When you speak of its implementation, there are many aspects to it—how and when, for instance. There are steps to follow that will take time. When Pakatan talks about discussing the matter further, I believe this is what it means.
“We never said that we will implement it today or tomorrow. People cannot make their own assumptions.”
It’s like getting married
He said that Nik Aziz would probably take the next step towards imposing hudud in Kelantan, but he added that a time line had yet to be determined.
“We have been waiting for years to implement it; so we can wait a few more years.
“It’s like wanting to get married. You have to decide if you have the funds to maintain your wife. If you have the intention to get married, then it is only a matter of when. Is it wrong to have the intention to get married?”
PAS secretary general Mustafa Ali dismissed a suggestion that Kelantan’s adamant attitude would confuse Pakatan supporters.

“Kelantan is different from other states,” he said. “It has the Syariah Kelantan Criminal Enactments II 1993, which was the Sultan consented to and which was passed by two thirds of the state assembly.
“If they want to pursue hudud after this, it has to be in line with the Federal Constitution and they will have to discuss the matter with the Federal Government. Then they can go ahead. We cannot stop them.”
Mustafa also said Pakatan had lifted the gag order it imposed on Monday over the hudud issue.
DAP chairman Karpal Singh, meanwhile, is sticking to his guns.
Asked if he agreed with Husam’s remark that the Kelantan government had the right to maintain its intention to impose hudud, he reiterated that it would be against the Federal Constitution.
He said it was futile for Kelantan government to hold on to the agenda.

source : Free Malaysia Today