MCA has been asked if the promise of cabinet posts has kept them from taking issue with Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday over the hudud issue.

"Clearly the fear of not getting any government posts from Najib has caused MCA president Liow Tiong Lai to panic..."

"Is MCA so hard-up for government posts that MCA dares not scold Umno for instigating PAS to implement hudud on Muslims in Kelantan?" asked DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng in a statement today.

Najib was at MCA's MCA unity event in Setapak yesterday where he announced he will decide on when MCA can rejoin the cabinet .

At the event, it was noted that the BN chief did not mention the thorny hudud issue that MCA has vehemently been issuing statements almost on a daily basis since PAS announced it plans to submit a Private Members Bill in Parliament related to implementing hudud in Kelantan.

The party has trained its venom at PAS and DAP, and has largely avoided mentioning that it was Umno that had been encouraging PAS and that Umno leaders including Najib himself has publicly supported the move.

Lim ( left ) noted that Liow failed to "scold Umno Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom for instigating PAS in Parliament on March 27 to implement hudud on Muslims in Kelantan".

"Unlike MCA’s reflex submissiveness to umno, DAP had publicly criticised PAS for falling into Umno’s trap to work with Umno to implement hudud in Kelantan," he said.

'Deafening silence from Liow'

Lim said it was Jamil who had encouraged PAS by saying "the federal government will be ready to work with any state government that is ready to implement hudud including Kelantan".

"Jamil even suggested that it is up to the non-government members of Parliament to table a Private Member's' Bill for that purpose," said Lim.

Jamil even announced the setting up a federal-state technical committee on the implementation of hudud in Malaysia with Kelantan on Friday after meeting with PAS.

MCA chief Liow Tiong Lai was also cautious to take his fellow BN partners to task for breaking ranks with the other non-Muslim component parties.

In his speech yesterday he focussed solely on PAS' insistence on the move, slamming the Islamic party for sowing "suspicion and mistrust" among the races.

When asked after the event to comment about the federal government's involvement in the joint technical committee, Liow dodged the question and merely said MCA will defend the federal constitution and that it has its own legal committee to study the matter.

Lim said, "For the last five weeks, Liow Tiong Lai has failed to criticise Jamil or other Umno leaders such as Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi....

"Neither has Liow criticised Jamil for forming a joint central technical committee..." he pointed out.

'Please wise up, PAS'

Lim, who is also Penang chief minister, said Umno "has no principles" and is supporting hudud merely as a "devious political trap for PAS, that pits PAS against DAP with the sole intention of breaking up Pakatan".

Similarly, he said the other BN component parties were "playing a double-faced game of pinning the blame on PAS and PR, especially DAP, when it is Umno that is the main culprit".

"Why should MCA, Gerakan, SUPP and these pro-BN Chinese organisations make a grand play of having emergency meetings demanding for a dialogue only with the Kelantan PAS government but not with the Umno's federal government, when it is Umno that is the instigator behind the implementation of hudud laws?" he asked.

On PAS' cooperation with Umno to implement hudud, Lim said it was a "contradiction" for PAS to be part of the opposition coalition that helped it win seats nationwide.

He warned PAS not to be gullible and fall for Umno's ploy to break up the opposition.

"If PAS continues to walk together with Umno to implement hudud in Kelantan, PAS will be seen as gullible at best and a betrayal of their non-Muslims voters at worst, which will make it easier for Umno to set off the trap to break up Pakatan.

"PAS must ask themselves seriously, 'Is Umno worthy to be trusted?'”.