Veep: PAS' fiery position on Act 355 due to being in opposition
PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said his party took a fiery position in pushing for amendments to Act 355 as it was in the opposition at that time but added that things are different because the Islamist party is now in government.
He said this in reference to PAS' previous push to increase the punishment limit under the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 so as to allow the partial implementation of hudud...
PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said his party took a fiery position in pushing for amendments to Act 355 as it was in the opposition at that time but added that things are different because the Islamist party is now in government.
He said this in reference to PAS' previous push to increase the punishment limit under the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 so as to allow the partial implementation of hudud.
Tuan Ibrahim (above) said this at the Temerloh PAS annual general meeting where he noted several of the motions put forward during the gathering was "opposition" in nature.
"We have many motions that are opposition in nature that keep demanding, demanding and demanding. Who are we demanding from? We are demanding the government. We are demanding from ourselves.
"In the past, it's okay to demand from the government because we are not in government. But now, we are in government, if we demand, it means we are demanding from ourselves. If we scold, we are scolding ourselves.
"Therefore, apart from making demands against the government, we need to come up with proposals on what we can do as the government," he said in a speech that was aired on Facebook.
An example, Tuan Ibrahim added, was PAS' position on Act 355. He noted that Pakatan Harapan is now criticising PAS for not being as vocal as it was before.
"There are some, particularly in Harapan, who attack us and ask where is PAS' previous vocalness?
"We used to be fiery (berapi-api). Of course, we were fiery because we were in the opposition. But if as the government we remain fiery, who are we being fiery against?" The Kubang Kerian MP said.
Tuan Ibrahim, who is also the environment and water minister, said as the government, there are many procedures to deal with in pushing for the amendments to Act 355.
"Being the opposition is easy. In Parliament, we just demand a motion for the amendments because we were the opposition.
"The opposition does not need to think about the methods, systems, rules. That was not our job. That was the government's job," he added.
But as the government now, Tuan Ibrahim said the matter needed to be referred to the respective state rulers and muftis.
"Then we need to refer to the National Council on Islamic Affairs. There are procedures involved, we need to meet the attorney-general and discuss the legal mechanism, we need to look at the Federal Constitution, we need to look at existing laws - there is a lot of work," he said.
As such, Tuan Ibrahim urged delegates at the gathering not to be influenced by the criticism by the opposition.
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