DAP and PAS on collision course over hudud in Kelantan

PAS will not be cowed by DAP in its effort to implement the Syariah Criminal Code (II) Enactment 1993, or hudud in Kelantan.

On the other hand, PAS assistant secretary-general Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan suggested that DAP should leave the opposition pact (PR) if they disagreed to the struggle of PAS.

He said DAP could not bar PAS from implementing the law in Kelantan because PR, which was set up in 2008, did not belong to DAP. "PR does not belong to DAP, PR does not have a leader, if (DAP) disagrees, it should leave PR, why ask us to leave, and they cannot make us (PAS) leave," he told reporters here, on Monday. Takiyuddin, who is also a member of Parliament for Kota Baharu and Permanent Chief Secretariat of the Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code, was responding to a statement by Puchong Member of Parliament Gobind Singh Deo on the implementation of hudud in the state.

Newspapers reported Gobind as giving a warning in his statement recently that PAS would not be seen as part of PR if the party tabled the bill on hudud next month because its implementation did not receive the support of its allies in PR.

The special conference of the Kelantan State Assembly from Mar 16 to 19 was for amending the Syariah Criminal Code (II) Enactment, Kelantan, 1993.

Takiyuddin said no party in PR, whether DAP or Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) could bar PAS from implementing the law in Kelantan because the enactment was approved in 1993 by the Kelantan State Assembly, before PR existed.

He said DAP and PKR were aware of the implementation of hudud because it had been discussed at PR top leadership meeting, and also DAP in 2011. Meanwhile, Kelantan deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah reiterated the stand of the Kelantan State Government not to bow to the pressure of DAP but was eager to implement the law.