Over the past four days, the world must have turned upside down for Barisan Nasional component parties - Umno, MCA and Gerakan in their respective attempts to politicise the implementation of hudud to serve their own narrow sectarian political interests.
Umno submitted a motion for the Selangor state assembly to “consider the implementation of hudud” to be debated.
The party had obviously intended to play to the Malay gallery that DAP, and ipso facto Pakatan Rakyat is anti-Islam when the motion is rejected by the speaker of the Assembly.
MCA and Gerakan with the assistance of the conniving mainstream media, on the other hand, are to attack the DAP for being subservient to PAS in the latter’s pursuit of the Islamic agenda.
In particular, MCA and Gerakan leaders blame the DAP for supporting the implementation of hudud, despite the fact that all our leaders have consistently expressed our position against its implementation.
By using the divide and rule strategy which has worked for decades to keep BN in power, Umno hopes to win over the Malay votes by supporting the implementation of hudud, while MCA and Gerakan hope to win back the non-Malay votes by striking the fear of hudud in them. BN wants to have its cake and eat it, too.
Despite the fears and criticisms from a sceptical public, the Selangor state assembly speaker, Hannah Yeoh, allowed the motion submitted by Umno to be debated next week, instead of succumbing to her personal instincts to reject it outright.
She decided that if the Umno elected representatives sincerely believe it important for the motion to be tabled in the House, then the only democratic choice is for the motion to be debated, and for the assembly to vote on the motion.
Once Umno’s motion was made public, MCA and Gerakan were then forced into severe damage control mode as it was laid bare that Umno, and hence BN itself, is pushing for hudud.
Instead of blaming Umno, MCA, Gerakan and hypocritical Chinese newspaper columnists placed the blame on Hannah for allowing the motion.
Umno on the other hand was in shock as their bluff was called and exposed. Most embarrassingly, Umno decided to withdraw their own motion to prevent it from being debated and voted in the assembly.
The Umno U-turn only proved that the party and its elected representatives were fooling around with the motion and abused the assembly processes to score cheap political points.
What BN most feared, however, isn’t just the motion being allowed to be debated in the House. What BN fears the most is the likely voting outcome which will expose the lies espoused by BN component parties.
The outcome where it will be put on the assembly voting records that all Pakatan Rakyat elected representatives – from DAP, PKR and PAS unanimously reject the motion after the debate will have a devastating impact on the future political fortunes of BN component parties.
Umno will fail in its objective to drive a wedge to tear apart Pakatan Rakyat. On the other hand, Pakatan Rakyat will demonstrate our resilience and our commitment to our Common Policy Framework and Manifesto.
At the same time, the vote will disprove once and for all MCA and Gerakan’s allegations against the DAP, while exposing their BN coalition partner, Umno to be the real culprit behind the push for religious criminal law enactment in the country.
Hence, we must commend the Selangor state assembly speaker for her believe in the democratic institution and processes which triumphed over BN’s politics of hypocrisy and fear-mongering.
TONY PUA is Selangor DAP chief and MP for Petaling Jaya Utara.
