Johor DAP chairperson Dr Boo Cheng Hau said action against his deputy Norman Fernandez over untoward remarks the latter made about Pakatan component PAS in a blog was not being contemplated.

Lawyer Fernandez had written in a posting that non-Muslim voters should be wary of PAS' plans to impose syariah, of which hudud is a part.

DAP's bete noire, MCA, went to town with Fernandez's view which was given front page banner treatment yesterday by party-owned newspaper The Star .

MCA and BN's glee over Fernandez's ill-timed remarks were palpable as Chinese votes in Johor are taken to be headed in bulk the Pakatan way, with non-Muslim anxiety over the imposition of Islamic jurisprudence allayed by the non-reference to syariah in Pakatan's manifesto and its absence in the PAS one that was launched later.

When asked in Penang yesterday what his reaction was to Fernandez's musings, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the state deputy chairperson was expressing his own view and not that of the party.

johor pakatan rakyat manifesto launch chua jui meng and dr boo Guan Eng added he would leave the matter in the hands of the Johor DAP committee.

Johor DAP leader Boo ( right in photo ) parried the fobbing of responsibility over Fernandez's remarks into his court by clarifying that his deputy was expressing a personal view, not the party's.

He then listed the conditions that made it unlikely that the state chapter would be able to carpet Fernandez.

"Firstly, we have no provisions in the constitution to deal with the situation as there is nothing in our rule book to bar the voicing of individual views.

"Secondly, we cannot convene a meeting of the state committee as members are busy campaigning," said the private medical practitioner who has headed the state chapter of the DAP for several years.

Better to keep him in the party

Fernandez has been unhappy with developments in Johor DAP that saw the chapter's slate of candidates set aside in deference to the central leadership's nominees.

NONE Boo's preclusion of action against Fernandez ( right ) means that the latter is not in danger of the sack, which may well be what he wants given his roiling discontent against the party and his perception that it has lost its way.

In other words, the outcome of an expulsion that would well be grounds for the lobbing of more petards at the party from the exclusion zone is forestalled.

An others' inflicted wound is preferable to a self-induced exit for the dredging up of recriminations which, pace another more infamous malcontent Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, is scarcely what the DAP should invite at this stage of the run-up to the national ballot.