KUALA LUMPUR, May 11 — MCA’s failure to convene an emergency Barisan Nasional (BN) council meeting to veto Umno’s apparent support for hudud belies the parties loud opposition to the Islamic penal law, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang said today.

Reminding the Chinese-based MCA and Gerakan of the consensus that forms the basis of policy decisions in BN, Lim said a solitary “no” from any component party was enough to prevent Umno from going through with backing rival PAS’s private members’ bills that could allow the enforcement of hudud in Kelantan.

Surmising that none of the 13 BN components save Umno would approve of hudud, the DAP national advisor then questioned why MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and his deputy, Datuk Wee Ka Siong, have not sought to force the issue within the coalition despite their outward rejection.

“Is the reason for the MCA perfidy and hypocrisy on the question of hudud all because of the greed of Liow and Wee for ministerial appointments when MCA is finally taken back into the Cabinet and Government — with Najib dangling the carrot of three MCA ministers and five MCA deputy ministers?” Lim asked in a statement today.

Lim highlighted to the two rival parties that Umno has seemingly decided BN’s position on the Islamic penal law when Prime Minister and coalition chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak declared on April 24 that the federal government was never against hudud.

Putrajaya also proposed a technical committee to study the Islamic penal law, which has since gained the acceptance of PAS.

Lim then challenged MCA to demonstrate the extent of its professed defence of the Federal Constitution against a purported crisis stemming from the PAS bid by rejecting the Cabinet appointments and conveying to Najib the party’s commitment to rejecting hudud.

MCA in February voted to reverse its decision to snub government posts over its Election 2013 performance and Najib last week gave his nod for the party to rejoin his Cabinet.

Following PAS’s announcement today that it will not table the two private members’ bills in Parliament during the June sitting, Lim also challenged MCA to reverse its decision to opt out of the May 25 Bukit Gelugor by-election.

“Of course, this was not the real reason why MCA is not contesting the Bukit Gelugor by-election — which is MCA fear of an even more ignominious defeat in Bukit Gelugor than during the 13GE last May,” Lim said.

Yesterday, MCA announced a surprise decision to sit out the Bukit Gelugor poll ostensibly to concentrate its resources on preventing PAS from trying to introduce two private members’ bills in Parliament to pave way for the enforcement of hudud in Kelantan.

“We have decided not to contest in the by-election as we believe we need to fully concentrate on the constitutional crisis triggered by PAS over hudud,” MCA secretary-general Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said in a press conference at the Penang MCA headquarters.

DAP yesterday announced Ramkarpal Singh Deo, the late Karpal Singh’s third son, as its choice to contest the by-election.

In 1993, the PAS state government passed the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code Enactment II, allowing it to impose the strict Islamic penal code in the state. But the laws have not been implemented.

PAS is now looking for parliamentary approval to implement hudud, but today announced that it is postponing this to allow a bi-partisan technical committee to study the issue.