MCA has called on Pakatan Rakyat leaderships of the Selangor and Penang governments to explain whether they backing PAS' intention to expand the hudud enactment beyond Kelantan, as claimed by PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub.

MCA central committee member Loh Seng Kok said failure to "chastise" the PAS veep would mean that PKR and DAP are in "tacit collusion" to introduce and enforce Kelantan's Syariah Criminal Code (II) Enactment 1993 in the other states.

NONE "Salahuddin's ( right ) intention will see a colossal change to the fundamental laws to our nation as it involves amending the federal constitution to enable (the Islamic) criminal code to be adopted.

"Dare DAP and PKR, which are usually quick to defend, support and campaign for PAS, be bold enough to advise PAS to water down its extremist laws?" Loh asked in a statement.

Already, he argued a "semblance" of PAS' "ultra-conservative values" have found their way in other Pakatan-ruled states like in Kedah in the last term, where there were restrictions on performers during the Chinese New Year celebrations.

"It was only last year that uproar was raised when the Kuala Selangor District Council (in Selangor) mooted regulations compelling unmarried couples to sit apart at the sole cinema in that district," Loh added.

On Monday, Salahuddin was reported by Sinar Harian as saying that the implementation of hudud in Kelantan was only a "beginning" and that it would continue in the other Pakatan-ruled states.

This followed support from Ketereh MP and Umno central committee member Annuar Musa for the enforcement of hudud in Kelantan.

Last year, Umno's Kemelah assemblyperson Ayub Rahmat mooted for hudud to be introduced in Johor.

'Address Kelantan's woes first'

Meanwhile, Loh said that instead of spending energy on introducing the hudud, PAS would be better off "addressing economic and social woes besieging Kelantan".

He then listed out these woes, which included "polluted water, highest rate of poverty and unemployment in the peninsula, high statistics of rape (and) severe lack of employment opportunities".

A written reply in Parliament in 2010 in revealed that Johor and Selangor have the highest number of reported rape cases from 2000 to 2009.

The Statistics Department's latest Household Income Survey shows that Kelantan has the lowest mean monthly income, at RM3,168.

However, its mean income has grown by 7.4 percent since 2009, a rate higher than states such as Selangor, Pahang, Penang and Malacca.

Kelantan has the highest incidence of poverty in the peninsula, at 2.7 percent of its population.