Amanah MP Mujahid Yusof Rawa said he had predicted BN's retreat from taking over PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang's syariah amendments long ago, as the ruling party had never been serious about it.

"I understood long ago the (Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdictions) Act, or Act 355) issue was merely to shift attention from and to silence the real national issues, such as the kleptocracy issue and abuse of power by Prime Minister Najib Razak and BN.

"It is extremely sad that the issue of syariah courts has become bait and even more sad that PAS has not attacked Umno (on national issues) because they were apparently bound by Umno's Act 355 promise," said the Parit Buntar MP.

Last July the US Department of Justice (DOJ) launched what it touts to be its largest action ever brought under its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative (Kari).

Through a series of civil forfeiture suits, it seeks to seize over US$1 billion worth of assets that it alleges were the result of criminal proceeds from the embezzlement of over US$3.5 billion from 1MDB.

The suit sparked the massive Bersih 5 rally last November, which PAS had shunned.

Instead, the Islamist party held its own rally to promote Hadi's amendments to Act 355, which will remove the federal obstacle to Kelantan's implementation of hudud.

This week in the run up to the government's taking over of Hadi's bill, opposition veteran Lim Kit Siang accused Hadi of being silent over allegations against Najib.

Last night in a surprise move, the BN supreme council announced an about turn on the government's decision on the syariah amendments bill.

Act 355 'only for politics'

Mujahid said the decision came as no surprise.

He said if the ruling coalition had considered the amendments as necessary and a substantive issue, they would have made the initiative (to table the amendments) themselves.

"However, because the motive from early on was political, the Act was used to break up Pakatan Rakyat at the time, and weaken PAS by purging it of the progressives in the party that had been pro-Pakatan.

"Unfortunately, that political goal was successful," he said.

Hadi's insistence on pushing for hudud law in Kelantan, which was unanimously passed in 2015 with a state assembly dominated by PAS and Umno assemblypersons, had caused a rift between PAS and DAP that had eventually led to Pakatan Rakyat's demise.

This was after PAS delegates at its 2015 muktamar decided to cut ties with DAP.

Mujahid urged the public to return its focus on pressing national issues such as kleptocracy, abuse of power, the huge national debt, the falling value of the ringgit, inflation and “investment decisions that are only aimed at saving the kleptocracy and not to benefit the country”.

“Stop the Act 355 polemic and save the country,” said Mujahid.