KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — PKR’s Rafizi Ramli challenged Umno’s partners in Barisan Nasional (BN) today to get the pact’s top two leaders to formally record their objection to hudud in writing, instead of allowing more misleading reports on the issue in the media.

In a statement, the party’s vice-president noted that contradicting reports have been surfacing of late on Umno’s support or rejection of the controversial Islamic penal code that PAS wants to implement in Kelantan.

To lay the matter to rest, Rafizi said BN’s non-Umno component partners like MCA, MIC, PPP and Gerakan in by GoPhoto.it V9.0">the peninsula

, and their east Malaysian counterparts like PBB, PBS, UPKO, SUPP, PRS, SPDP and LDP, should urge Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to state their positions on the Islamic law.

“If all these party presidents in BN fail to get Najib’s and Umno’s formal position (on hudud) by next Tuesday, it would be more dignified for them to simply dissolve their respective parties as they have clearly been bullied and sidelined by Umno in this ‘sandiwara’ over hudud.

“It is clear their parties no longer hold value, especially when compared with the cooperation between Umno and PAS in this matter,” the Pandan MP said.

PAS-ruled Kelantan passed key amendments to its Shariah Criminal Code II 1993 on Thursday in a move to enable the eventual implementation of hudud in the Malay-majority east coast state.

All 12 Umno state lawmakers voted for the amendments but the ruling party’s national leadership has yet to declare if the same support would be given to PAS’s hudud ambition at the federal level.

Next week, all BN component parties including Umno will issue a joint statement to declare its position on the controversial issue.

The statement is expected to precede PAS’s attempt to table a private members’ Bill in the ongoing Parliament session that will enable Kelantan to carry out punishments under hudud. Among others, the Islamic criminal justice system prescribes amputation as punishment for crimes like stealing.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had earlier this week served notice to Parliament on the proposed Bill but BN’s law minister Datuk Nancy Shukri said it may not make it into the order paper for the current session as there are many others on the schedule.

Rafizi noted today, however, that Hadi’s private members’ Bill could be tabled for debates in the Dewan Rakyat with the agreement of Najib as prime minister.

“But with all parties in Parliament, except for Umno, having already stated their positions on the hudud Bill, if it is allowed to tabled, it would only be approved if all 88 Umno MPs vote in support of it,” the PKR secretary-general said.

PAS only has 21 MPs in the lower House and would need to rely on Muslim MPs from other parties in order to get a simple majority of 112 votes to get the Bill passed.

As such, Rafizi said it was imperative for Umno’s component partners to get the BN lynchpin to decide if it plans to support the law.

At last week’s Cabinet meeting, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Liow Tiong Lai reportedly recorded his party’s objection to hudud and urged all ministers to ensure the Federal Constitution is respected.

The MCA leader was later quoted in Chinese daily Sin Chew as saying that the majority of ministers in the federal Cabinet voiced their objection to the Islamic penal code.

Yesterday, Gerakan chief Datuk Mah Siew Keong expressed a similar sentiment, and said that BN will issue a formal statement on its position next week.