Gerakan has criticised the newly-minted Pakatan Harapan agreement as failing to allay public suspicion on the coalition’s “hudud ambiguity”.

The party’s national law and human rights bureau chief, Baljit Singh, said today Harapan, which consists of DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah), failed to state its stand on hudud.

“Pakatan Harapan even declared that the allies would not wash dirty linen in public, and neither would they agree to disagree anymore,” Baljit noted.

“The coalition even claimed that it would uphold the Federal Constitution, but the parties failed to state clearly the coalition’s stand on hudud,” Baljit ( photo ) added.

“Why it’s so difficult to state their stand?” he asked, pointing out that hudud was the main factor that split the previous coalition, Pakatan Rakyat.

The three opposition parties - minus PAS - inked a collective agreement on Jan 9, promising to forge a consensus on every controversial issue, while stating that the concept of “agree to disagree” would be a thing of the past.

According to Harapan, the matter would be addressed in the coalition’s common policy framework , which would be unveiled in June.

PKR’s Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin said the two issues of hudud and local elections would be addressed in the coalition’s common policy framework in June.

There are “new offerings”, which would be revealed to the rakyat, and the agreement is merely the official formalisation of the pact among the three parties, Sim told Malaysiakini .

However, Gerakan is not convinced and described the coalition’s latest agreement as a “gimmick, just another political wayang kulit” (shadow play) to hoodwink the people.

Baljit noted that the previous Pakatan Rakyat members, which included PAS, failed to declare a common stand on hudud but managed to “deceive” the people to vote for them in the 2013 general election.

“DAP hid its agreement to allow PAS to pursue its Islamist agenda on its own accord from public knowledge, only for the truth to be exposed later, which led to the break-up of Pakatan Rakyat.

“By not declaring its common stand, Pakatan Harapan is inheriting similar symptoms. Therefore, Malaysians should beware of this unholy alliance,” Baljit warned.