Selangor Umno has retracted its motion urging a study on the feasibility of implementing hudud in the state, state opposition leader Mohd Shamsudin Lias said today.

Shamsudin, when contacted by Malaysiakini today, said the U-turn was due to the "misunderstanding" that the motion has caused.

He said Umno’s motion was only for a feasibility study on hudud and not for the actual implementation of the theocractic law in the country’s most urbanised state.

Shamsudin ( right ), who is also Sungai Burong state assemblyperson, blamed the Chinese press for the confusion.

"I think this misunderstanding happened because too many Chinese newspapers contacted me to ask me about it (the motion)," he said when contacted today.

"It is not a member's bill. It is only to ask the state government whether they want to implement hudud (or not)."

Shamsudin said BN has decided it can still raise the matter during the regular state assembly debate sessions.

"That way, we can ask during the debate," he said.

Selangor Umno stirred up a hornet’s nest this week over the motion proposed by Sungai Air Tawar assemblyperson Kamarol Zaki Abdul Malik ( left ), which Selangor state assembly speaker Hannah Yeoh subsequently accepted.

This curiously prompted MCA, Umno's largest partner in the BN coalition, to attack Yeoh, who is also a DAP assemblyperson, for accepting the BN motion.

Yeoh in response reminded her critics that she is speaker for all parties, regardless of political affiliation.

Shamsudin also played down Selangor Umno’s move to abruptly withdraw the motion after a political storm.

“It is normal . If you look at other state assemblies or parliament, motions can be retracted before or on the date they are to be read,” he said.

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