MCA AGM MCA president Liow Tiong Lai said his party would object to PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s Private Member's Bill to increase the punishment levels of the syariah courts.

He said this during the opening ceremony of MCA’s 63rd annual general meeting in the in the presence of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, whose party Umno has been elusive on support for the bill.

Liow said what Abdul Hadi was proposing was against the tenets of the founding of Malaya, of which MCA was a party to, and the federal constitution.

“We must respect and adhere to the present system. We will strongly oppose, unanimously and without question, because (hudud) is against the Federal Constitution,” said Liow.

He said the Chinese community was deeply disturbed with PAS’ attempt to implement hudud law, which will create a dual-track justice system.

Najib however in his speech later, made no mention of Abdul Hadi’s bill nor MCA’s objection.

Hadi's bill was tabled after Kelantan unanimously passed its enactment to implement hudud law last year, with 43 PAS and Umno assemblypersons and a single PKR representative.

Ironically, the Kelantan hudud move was aided by a joint technical committee set up by Putrajaya with the state government.

The bill serves to remove the final federal obstacle to putting the state enactment on hudud into practice.

'DAP helped PAS'

Liow repeated claims PAS had managed to come to this position of power and influence because they had help from DAP.

He said PAS had never won a seat in the Selangor legislative assembly during elections held between 1978 to 2004.

“However, in 2008, PAS suddenly won eight seats thanks to DAP’s support. Worse still, in 2013, PAS won more seats. They now have 15.

“We can see today that even though they are not in the same coalition, DAP is still working with PAS in the Selangor government,” he said.

Liow said DAP was being hypocritical by continuing their collaboration with PAS despite claiming to have broken ties.

He said that in recent years, MCA had managed to close ranks and will be presenting a united front in the upcoming general election.

"Let's move and make MCA strong again,” said Liow in his closing remark.