KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 — Days after mooting a new bipartisan “Save Malaysia” coalition, DAP’s Lim Kit Siang asked today for possible names on who to lead such a coalition government.
The DAP parliamentary leader’s suggestion comes amid fears that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak would decide to support PAS’s hudud private member’s bill in parliament, saying such a move will negate his “moderate” credentials and credibility.
“So long as Najib’s ‘labour pains’ are preventing him from declaring clearly and definitively the stand of the previous five Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah that hudud law is against the Malaysian Constitution and not suitable for a multi-racial, multi-religious nation like Malaysia.
“The time has come to explore who could be the new Prime Minister of a new coalition government to ‘Save Malaysia’ to defend the Malaysian Constitution,” Lim said in a statement here.
Despite that, Lim also blamed so-called “unity government conspirators” in Umno, who had allegedly lured PAS with the hudud implementation, now a “double-edged sword” which he said is capable of destroying both Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and Barisan Nasional (BN).
The Gelang Patah MP’s statement follows an influential group of retired Malay senior civil servants’ warning earlier today, that Malaysia risks losing its identity as a model of religious moderation and multiracialism if PAS is allowed to introduce its brand of Islamic penal laws.
Faced with the very real possibility of the PR pact breaking up over the hudud controversy, Lim suggested on Sunday the formation of a new government by a “Save Malaysia” coalition to comprise lawmakers from both sides of the political divide.
Stressing that the suggestion was his personal view, the veteran DAP politician noted that both PR and BN appear to be torn in their support for hudud, the Islamic penal code that PAS intends to implement in Kelantan.
The new coalition, Lim explained, would go on to form a new federal government with a new prime minister that could come from either side of the divide.
He added that the pact’s objectives would be specifically to defend the Federal Constitution and uphold the rule of law.
