Pakatan Rakyat risks emulating Brazil's shambolic performance at the recently concluded 2014 football World Cup if it can't find a consensus on hudud and the issue continues to pit Pakatan parties against each other, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang warned today.

 

In a statement, Lim referred to a survey by independent pollster Merdeka Centre that found nearly three in five Malaysians were not in favour of hudud being implemented in the country.

"I think a more rigorous poll is needed for the result to be more credible, but whatever the flaws of the survey, what is indisputable is that for the first time in the nation's history, Malaysia will be divided down the middle if hudud laws are implemented," Lim warned.

He argued that any fallout due to hudud implementation will be the "greatest disaster" in six decades of nation-building, as it will create irreconcilable divisions and conflicts between various sections of society.

"The immediate outcome of the implementation of hudud will be the break-up of Malaysia, for it is inconceivable that Sarawak and Sabah, which formed Malaysia in 1963 on the specific understanding that Malaysia shall be a secular state with Islam as the official religion of the federation, can agree to any such fundamental violation of the constitutional compact in the 1963 Malaysia Agreement," Lim further stated.

He said over the past three months, Umno and BN had mounted a "conspiracy" to break up Pakatan with its hudud ploy.

"That started off the revival of the hudud controversy, plunging the three Pakatan component parties of DAP, PAS and PKR in its second crisis of survival in the six-year history of the alternative coalition," Lim admitted.

"The first crisis faced by Pakatan was in September 2011 which nearly led to its break-up and was also over the hudud controversy," he added.

'Stay vigilant'

Lim said that if hudud had been a controversial issue in the general elections, BN would have regained its two-thirds majority in the Parliament in the 13th general elections.

"In these circumstances, leaders of Pakatan parties, whether DAP, PAS or PKR should be vigilant so as not to fall victim to the Umno plot to foment dissension and cause the break-up of Pakatan," he said.

Brazil, who hosted the World Cup and were carrying the entire nation's expectations to win the title, made it to the semifinals before they were embarrassed in a 7-1 defeat to eventual champions Germany in front of their own fans.

A further 3-0 defeat by Netherlands in the third place playoff meant that Brazil became the first World Cup semifinalist to concede 10 goals in just two games.

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