The BN supreme council's decision to veto Putrajaya's intention of taking over the bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act proves that opponents of the bill are not "anti-Islam", says DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang.

"There are two important outcomes of the BN supreme council meeting yesterday - firstly, averting final funeral rites for a consensus-based BN and secondly, a clear affirmation that to criticise or even oppose (PAS president) Abdul Hadi Awang's Private Member's Bill is not being anti-Islam.

"If criticism or even opposition to Hadi's bill is being anti-Islam, then Umno ministers and leaders, led by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, would have committed acts that come under the definition of 'anti-Islam'," Kit Siang said in a statement today.

He said that now was the best time for Parliament to set an example, where progressive, open-minded and inclusive Islamic thoughts and ideas are not regarded as "anti-Islam".

"Parliament should also set an example of moderation, justice and fair play, where abusive and derogatory terms like 'anti-Malay' or 'anti-Islam', or anti any race or religion, are not allowed to be used to undermine nation-building and national unity."

PAS leaders, in particular Hadi, have been consistently claiming that those who oppose the bill, especially DAP, are "anti-Islam" or Islamophobic.

Hadi's bill was initially supported by Umno, with Najib telling the Umno general assembly that Putrajaya would take over the bill.

More 'tricks' to come?

However, the BN supreme council at its meeting last night resolved that Putrajaya could not do so, forcing Najib to announce that the bill will not be taken over and that the fate of Hadi's Private Member's Bill lies with the Dewan Rakyat speaker.

Najib said that this decision had to be taken in view of BN's consensus model.

Kit Siang also said that the BN supreme council had managed to "prevent" the "final funeral rites" of its consensus system.

He said the system was "sick and in quite a terminal stage" after ministers from Umno unilaterally gave priority to Hadi's bill without consulting the other BN component parties.

"The question now is whether the Umno ministers and leaders will now resort to the parliamentary manoeuvres of quickly finishing the official parliamentary business so that there will be adequate time for Hadi's bill to surface, be debated and voted upon.

"(When we will see) the MPs from Sabah and Sarawak BN parties, MCA, Gerakan and MIC play ball with the Umno ministers and MPs to achieve such a result?

"We will know soon enough," said Kit Siang.

Put bill to rest, let's move on

Similarly, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng urged Najib to provide an assurance that government business would be given priority and that Hadi's bill would not be put up for debate.

"Failure to do so will make meaningless Najib's announcement that BN will not adopt Act 355 as the government bill, when the bill could still be debated on and approved in Parliament," Guan Eng said in a statement today.

He said the only way Malaysians could move on from the matter was to put Hadi's bill to rest.

"DAP moved decisively when it was clear that Hadi did not want to abide by the then Pakatan Rakyat common manifesto.

"Hadi had insisted on going on his own to pursue the amendments, causing DAP to break ties with him and then PAS left Pakatan Rakyat," he said.

Guan Eng added that the proposed amendments went against the tenets of the Federal Constitution and it was wrong to change the constitutional framework with an ordinary bill that only required simple majority vote to get through the Dewan Rakyat.