I am giving the MCA President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and the Gerakan President Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong a 48-hour ultimatum to requisition for an emergency Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting to resolve the week-long spat caused by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Azalina Said Othman for her Ministerial motion in Parliament last Thursday to fast-track the Hadi’s Hudud Bill or Malaysians have to conclude that both the MCA and Gerakan Presidents were privy to the Najib-Hadi plot.
There can be no other reason for Liow or Mak not to requisition for an emergency BN Supreme Council meeting to resolve the BN spat over Azalina’s Ministerial motion, when Azalina had acted in violation of the consensus reached by all Barisan Nasional leaders on the same issue in March 2015 as well as the reaffirmation by Cabinet at its meeting on 20th May 2015 of a fundamental Barisan Nasional stand, whether through formal or informal discussion by Cabinet Ministers.
Furthermore, a BN Supreme Council meeting emergency meeting to reaffirm the Barisan Nasional stand not only of the BN leaders in March 15 last year, but of all UMNO Prime Ministers in Malaysia since Merdeka on the secular basis of the Malaysian Constitution, would have ended the BN spat on the Hadi bill without creating any artificial national crisis in polarizing Malaysians into Muslims and non-Muslims and distract the country from the real national issues in the country – whether Malaysia’s social and economic crisis over the nation’s first global financial crisis like the RM55 billion 1MDB and Najib’s RM4.2 billion “donation” twin mega crisis, losing economic competitiveness, fall in educational excellence in our educational institutions or growing economic inequality and injustices in the country.
If the agenda is not to resolve the Barisan Nasional spat over Azalina’s Ministerial motion but to allow the artificial national crisis over Hadi’s hudud bill to fester and ferment in particular during the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections, seeking in the process to make hudud the main issue in the two by-elections, then I can understand Liow and Mak’s refusal to requisition an emergency meeting of Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to end the controversy.
This is because an emergency Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting to end the the BN spat over Azalina’s Ministerial motion would be detrimental to the objective to make the hudud the primary issue in the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections and allow Najib to avoid all accountability and responsibility for the 1MDB and “donation” scandals although other countries have initiated action against institutions and individuals for multi-billion ringgit 1MDB embezzlement, money-laundering and corruption offences.
What excuses do Liow and Mah have not to requisition an emergency BN Supreme Council meeting?
Ignorance that there is such an option?
Even this excuse is not open to Liow and Mak as I had publicly suggested this option to them for half a dozen times in the past week.
Surely, a smart and intelligent person who could rise up to become Minister need not be reminded half a dozen times about the most efficient, speediest and most patriotic way to resolve the BN spat over Azalina’s Ministerial motion, without plunging the country into an artificial national crisis by polarizing Malaysians into Muslims and non-Muslims and distracting the nation from focusing on the real issues affecting country.
Can Liow and Mah give just one acceptable and patriotic reason why they could not requisition an emergency BN Supreme Council meeting to address Azalina’s Ministerial motion to fast-track Hadi’s hudud bill in Parliament last Thursday?
The refusal of Liow and Mah to requisition an emergency meeting of BN Supreme Council is all the more inexcusable andheinous especially as I expect three-quarters of the 14 BN component parties would support such a requisitioning if Liow and Mak are prepared to provide the leadership.
It is sad to see the MCA and Gerakan Presidents, one claiming to lead the second biggest component party of BN and the other the “conscience” of Barisan Nasional, proving to the political dwarfs when compared to their Sabah and Sarawak counterparts in the Barisan Nasional, like the acting UPKO President Madius Tangau.
Honestly, is there that much point to this line of attack? Even UMNO/BN supporter says they are irrelevant.
Frankly, Pakatan not getting ahead and get Mahathir to put his candidate in SG. Besar and KK will be disappointing.
To even think that Liow / Mah were privy to the PAS / DUMNO hudud plot is to give MCA / Gerakan too much credit. The truth of the matter is that they were so irrelevant that they were totally ignored and told to shut up at the cabinet meeting and not even informed of the fast tracking. MCA / Gerakan are totally irrelevant. DUMNO has realised that MCA / Gerakan needs DUMNO more than DUMNO needs them. So they can be ignored at will, without consequence.
Why are we always seeking to enhance punishment for crimes, while progressive societies, especially the western societies, seem to get by with less and less punishment? Tell Jokowi that that death penalty and chemical castration won’t deter rape. In fact, it would make the lives of victims more unsafe.
Najib says that the bill has nothing to do with Hudud (crimes for which a specific punishment, e.g. a fixed number of lashes, has been prescribed in scripture). The reality is that there would be nothing to prevent PAS from legislating ultra-vires the Federal Constitution as regards some lesser hudud offences. The manner of caning/lashing could vary unfairly between state and federal law. Public spectacle while carrying out punishment would be tantamount to added punishment compared to the “private” punishment directed by civil courts.
What the government is doing is to lay the responsibility of voting against the PAS bill on the shoulder of Non-Muslim legislators and the few progressive Muslim legislators in West Malaysia, and on the solid block of Muslim and Non-Muslim legislators in East Malaysia. The government is not concerned with the bad blood that may arise between Muslims and Non-Muslims in West Malaysia. All they are concerned is to prop up that “enfant terrible” who heads UMNO and to pull wool over everyone’s eyes regarding his financial scandals.