KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 ― Former MCA president Tan Sri Dr Chua Soi Lek told his party today to prevent Umno from supporting PAS’ parliamentary hudud bills, saying that the Chinese Barisan Nasional (BN) party cannot continue pointing fingers at the DAP.

Dr Chua said he believes that Umno, which is the biggest party in Parliament controlling 88 seats in the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat, will not vote for the private members’ bills that the Islamist opposition party is expected to table in May to allow Kelantan to enforce hudud.

“However, if Umno MPs support PAS’ private bill in Parliament, MCA cannot continue to ignore the elephant in the room and blame others for supporting PAS hudud in Kelantan,” Dr Chua said in a statement.

“To continue issuing statements condemning DAP is an exercise of futility. The Malaysian community expects more from MCA and it is time for MCA leadership to rise to the occasion,” he added.

Dr Chua noted that during his tenure as MCA chief, Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had told him to “tone down” his attack against the Islamic penal code as it could be twisted to portray MCA as being anti-Islam.

Dr Chua’s successor Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai reportedly said yesterday that MCA has voiced its stand against hudud at a BN meeting after Kelantan passed amendments to the Shariah Criminal Code II 1993.

The Star quoted Liow as saying that MCA will “closely monitor PAS’ actions” and that the DAP, MCA’s rival party from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) whose members are predominantly Chinese, has “disappointed their voters by remaining silent”.

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang, however, said yesterday that his party’s central leadership will decide Monday if the DAP will continue to ally with PKR and PAS in the federal opposition pact.

PAS now plans to put forward two private members’ bills in Parliament to enable Kelantan to enforce hudud ― one will seek approval for the state to legislate punishment for crimes under the Penal Code. The other seeks to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal) Jurisdiction Act 1965 to enable Islamic courts to mete out punishments like the death penalty for apostasy and amputation of limbs for theft, as the law currently limits the punishments Shariah courts can impose to imprisonment.

PAS has said it only needs a simple majority in Parliament, or 112 MPs in the Dewan Rakyat, to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal) Jurisdiction Act.

PAS holds 21 seats in Parliament while Umno has 88 MPs all of which, with the exception of deputy speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee, are Muslims. Even if both parties throw their support behind the two bills, they are still four seats short.

PKR has 15 Muslim MPs and the DAP has two.