DAP says ‘business as usual’ with PAS despite hudud row
UPDATED @ 01:04:02 PM 27-08-2012
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 27 — It is “business as usual” for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties DAP and PAS, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said today, shrugging off talk that the ongoing dispute over hudud has caused a fracture in the parties’ ties.
Lim insisted at a press conference here that the leadership of both the DAP and PAS will continue to hold strong to PR’s common policy framework, which does not list the implementation of the controversial Islamic penal code should the pact come to power.
“At the highest level, it is still business as usual because we base our struggles on PR’s common policy framework,” he said.
Lim (picture), however, refused to comment on the ongoing quarrel between DAP chairman Karpal Singh and former PAS deputy president Nasharudin Mat Isa, telling reporters to speak directly to the duo.
On August 17, Karpal said he will sue Nasharudin for defamation after the former PAS No. 2 appeared to side with Umno by advocating a PAS exit from PR and accusing the DAP leader of being against Islam.
Prior to that, Nasharudin was reported as saying: “Karpal is not only against hudud but also against Islam.”
PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said on Saturday that the party’s ulama council will deliberate Nasharudin’s fate in its coming meet following the latter’s spat with Karpal.
The issues of forming an Islamic state and implementing Islamic penal law have been a thorn in PR’s side, with leaders from the DAP and PAS openly clashing over these issues in the media.
But Lim appeared today to brush aside the issue as a political tactic purportedly used by Barisan Nasional (BN) to instil fear in voters by discouraging the Chinese from voting for the DAP due to its ties with Islamist party PAS and the contrary for the Malays towards PAS.
“This issue has been with us right from the beginning and it will be with us even after I leave politics. BN can only rely on the three Ms — money, media and machinery.
“The papers lie every day... Utusan Malaysia puts this on their front page every day,” he said.
The squabble between the DAP and PAS over hudud appeared to settle down in October 2011 after a meeting of PR leaders had reaffirmed the pact’s 2009 common policy framework, its Buku Jingga framework and joint statement made earlier in which hudud was never mentioned as a common agenda.
Umno has previously used the formation of PR as a clear sign that PAS has abandoned its Islamic state aim, even as it tempts it with offers to help it realise that goal.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said that support for one “faction” will translate in the backing of its partner, and “those sleeping in the same bed would profit”.
He added that Muslims were also at a crossroads and must choose those who are able to guarantee the honour and purity of Islam.
The MCA, Umno’s partner in BN, however, employs hudud as a platform to attack rival DAP as vicariously supporting hudud and the Islamic state via its partnership with the Islamist party in PR.
Last week, Dr Chua told The Star that a PR victory in the next general election will see PAS proposing a constitutional amendment to form an Islamic state.
He also told the MCA-owned daily that the amendment would then receive the two-thirds majority required because Muslim MPs, regardless of political party, were bound to vote for it.
