Deputy Finance Minister Chua Tee Yong has downplayed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s silence over the Kelantan government’s plans to implement Islamic criminal law, and expressed confidence that the premier will make "the correct announcement".

What is important for now, he said, is that individual component parties and MPs are voicing their opposition to the plans, such as what de facto law minister Nancy Shukri ( right in photo ), from Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, did yesterday.

He also dismissed suggestionS that BN is having problems reaching a consensus on the issue.

"We remain positive that the prime minister will issue the statement, and as such we are waiting for the response," he told reporters at a press conference today.

When asked, he declined to comment on when Najib would issue the statement, saying that was the premier’s prerogative.

Last Thursday, leaders of 12 BN component parties held an emergency meeting with Najib to voice their opposition on the implementation of hudud law, which Umno supported in the Kelantan state legislative assembly.

Najib had promised the component parties leaders that he will issue a statement on the matter. But seven days after the meeting, Najib's statement is still not forthcoming.

Hoodwinked the voters

Meanwhile, Chua also said DAP’s move to sever ties with PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang but not his party is merely a charade to cling onto power.

 

He pointed out the hudud agenda was not just Hadi’s agenda alone, but also that he was carrying out the will of his party.

 

“Basically what (DAP secretary-general) Lim Guan Eng is saying is that, at the end of the day, they just want to remain in Pakatan Rakyat, they will work with PAS for the purpose of political expediency and they do not want to admit that they had hoodwinked the voters (by) basically casting a very different image of PAS during two elections,” to told a press conference today.

 

He said during the run-up to the 13th general election , DAP had helped to re-brand PAS as a party that had changed its goals from an Islamic state to a welfare state, this even though it knew that the party never changed at all.

 

“Obviously this is all false hope. This is all fake. Because they have even signed an agreement that was published by Hadi Awang which states that they know that PAS can continue to fight for their right to establish an ‘Islamic state’ or whatever the term was.

 

“It was published in Hadi Awang’s Facebook,” Chua ( above ) claimed.

'DAP helped re-brand PAS'

 

Accusing him of dishonesty, Lim had made the announcement to sever ties with Hadi following a DAP central executive committee meeting on Monday.

 

“DAP is unable to work with a PAS president like Hadi Awang ( below  righ t) who persists in such dishonest and dishonourable acts.

 

“The DAP has lost trust and confidence in Hadi as a Pakatan Rakyat leader and will end ties and cease to work with him,” Lim ( below left ) said in a statement a day after the meeting.

 

When asked about his father and former MCA president Chua Soi Lek’s call for the party to pressure Umno on the hudud issue, Tee Yong said this had already been done.

 

He added that his father’s statement needs to be taken in totality including a call to MCA to highlight DAP’s role in furthering PAS’ hudud ambitions.

 

“He did say that it is important for us to highlight to the voters that DAP has played a role and it is also important for us to highlight to Umno what is our stance, which we are doing now at this moment including by gathering other BN component parties to express their stance.

 

“So this is the work that we have to do both ways, basically. I don’t take the statement as critical, you must read it in totality,” he said.