I repeat and reiterate that PAS should not isolate and distance itself further from PR by pressing ahead with the hudud bill in the Kelantan state assembly on 18.3.2015.
We should be moving towards strengthening Pakatan Rakyat and not doing the reverse instead.
If PAS goes ahead, it would be seen as working against Pakatan Rakyat. This is because any such bill would not have the backing of Pakatan Rakyat and hudud does not form part of the common policy framework of Pakatan Rakyat.
Anyone who acts against the common objectives of any organization, isolates itself from that organization. You cannot say you are committed to the goals of a particular organization and do something which is directly opposed to it.
If it comes to that, you would be seen to be parting ways with the organization. It would appear then, that you are no longer part of that organization.
PAS assistant secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan should read and understand.
This isn’t about who owns PR or who asks who to leave. It is about what PAS proposes to do and how that will reflect on its continued relations with PR. Ultimately what will come of it all would not be for any individual party but for the PR leadership to decide.
Takiyuddin further says PAS briefed DAP about hudud in 2011.
Let me be very clear about it. PAS has never shown us or briefed us about the details of the hudud bill they intend to table in Kelantan on 18.3.2015, nor the private members bill they intend to table in Parliament to make way for hudud in the months to come.
In fact, PAS even refused a request by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim that a copy of the bill be shown to us about a month ago.
The first time they spoke to us briefly about the bill was during the last PR leadership meet just weeks ago and that is why it was agreed that the matter be adjourned pending further detailed discussions.
Takiyuddin shouldn’t twist the facts. We are talking about specific bills here, not general discussions about hudud.
Some leaders in PAS have also suggested that their move to introduce hudud is part of the “agree to disagree” stance taken by PR.
With the greatest of respect, that defies logic.
Agree to disagree means what is says, that all parties in PR may disagree with one another over certain ideas they may have, but that does not allow for any of the component parties in PR to act in any way which is inconsistent with the common policy framework in PR.
It certainly does not allow for any one party to unilaterally push ahead with any agenda outside the substance of the framework without the consensus of all parties beforehand.
If that be the case, then the common policy framework looses its significance and value and becomes a non-starter.
PAS vice-president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man says there must be mutual respect amongst the component parties in PR in order to strengthen it. With this, I agree.
PAS must then respect the fact that its allies in PR have a right to know and to comment upon what it is they propose to do, especially where it involves sensitive and controversial issues such as hudud.
More importantly, PAS must first show respect for the common policy framework and the need for consensus if at all anything is to be done outside of it by any one of the component parties of Pakatan Rakyat.