By Ida Lim
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — MCA continued to play the religious card today, by insisting that the “subservient” DAP should press PAS to give up its stand on hudud law.
MCA deputy publicity chief Loh Seng Kok’s statement comes just a day after his party president said that religion should not be politicised to prevent further division in the country.
The Islamic penal code hudud has entered the spotlight again, with leaders from both the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) trading barbs over the issue ahead of the 13th general elections.
Loh (picture) today said “it is painfully obvious” that DAP is “in reality...subservient to PAS” even as “DAP voices its opposition towards hudud and claiming that having PAS hudud law is not part of Pakatan’s common policy.”
Loh painted DAP and PAS as having unsettled “differences” over hudud, saying that DAP’s Lim Kit Siang and Lim Guan Eng “must use their influence to urge other Pakatan leaders to issue a joint statement saying that PAS has abandoned its theocratic state and hudud law agenda.”
He said the duo should also push their ally PAS to amend its party constitution to reflect the proposed joint statement.
Loh claimed that there is “infighting” within PR over hudud, saying all DAP “can do is to say that Pakatan parties have ‘agreed to disagree’”.
“PAS has also repeatedly said that they will not change their ambition simply because DAP opposes it,” said Loh, who is also an MCA Central Committee member.
He said the PAS president has stated that the party is bent on fulfilling its “ultimate ambition of establishing a theocratic state and implementing hudud law.”
“PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has also implied his agreement towards having hudud law.”
“Are all these part of Pakatan’s common policy?” asked Loh, pointing to “the enforcement of certain Islamic policies such as the ban on the sale of lottery tickets and the separation of genders in cinemas in Kelantan.”
He also cited the “demolition of the pig abattoir and the implementation of the 50 per cent Bumi housing quota policy in Kedah.”
“If it is not, then why is DAP keeping silent and stepping aside quietly to allow PAS to implement these policies uninhibited?”