Pandan MP Mohd Rafizi Ramli is urging members of the public to pressure BN leaders into providing a written undertaking to support the upcoming private member’s bill on syariah criminal law.

They - BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak and his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin - should also give written instructions to BN parliamentarians to vote in favour of the bill when it is tabled first.

If a commitment is not forthcoming, he said Umno and BN would use the hudud issue to break up Pakatan Rakyat.

“If that happens, the implementation of hudud would fail and the people would continue to be victimised by Umno and BN’s poor governance, embezzlement, and culture of corruption,” he said in a statement today.

The PKR secretary-general also urged PAS leaders not to table the bill until it has obtained a written guarantee from BN and its component parties to support the bill.

“This is important to ensure that there is no deceit from Umno and BN, which had victimised PAS before by booting it from BN in 1977,” he said.

Rafizi ( left ) was referring to the 1977 Kelantan Emergency, where PAS was expelled from BN after its MPs voted against a law that would give the federal government emergency powers in Kelantan, following violent protests and looting in the state.

He pointed out that to date, BN representatives are giving conflicting statements about whether they would support the private member’s bill, in absence of a directive .

Yesterday, the Kelantan state assembly had unanimously approved amendments to its Syariah Criminal Code II 1993, which spells out offences and punishments based on an interpretation of Islamic law.

Its next hurdle is to push for an amendment to the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 to enable the implementation of the new law, which PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang intends to do during the current sitting.

The upcoming amendment would lift limits on the severity of punishments that can be meted out by the Syariah Court, and thus allowing it to impose punishments that include stoning to death as stipulated under the Kelantan law.