Alternatively, added Lim, who is also Gelang Patah MP, all ministers can reach a new consensus to oppose Hadi’s hudud Bill.
Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders have always maintained that there was already a consensus on rejecting the hudud Bill, and if this is the case, why was there a need to make “a consensus decision” on the Bill, creating a new-fangled creature of a BN “consensus on a consensus”, asked the DAP veteran in a statement today.
Lim added it was meaningless to indulge in empty rhetoric after the horses had bolted. “It was pointless issuing empty threats which nobody believes.”
Lim referred to threats by the MCA and Gerakan Presidents to resign from the Cabinet at the end of the year if Hadi’s hudud Bill was passed by Parliament.
“The urgent and realistic thing to do is to restore the status quo ante to reaffirm BN consensus to reject Hadi’s hudud Bill,” demanded the DAP veteran. “Both Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said (proposer) and Deputy Works Minister Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin (seconder) should be sacked for the ministerial motion to fast-track Hadi’s hudud Bill in Parliament on May 26.”
Even if MCA President Liow Tiong Lai and Gerakan President Mah Siew Keong dare not ask for the sacking of Azalina and Rosnah, they should ensure that the BN Supreme Council restore the status quo ante on the issue, continued Lim.
“The BN Supreme Council should re-affirm its stand on consensus, the basic principle and cardinal position of the coalition for over four decades right from its formation in 1973.”
Lim was commenting on the MCA president telling a press conference in Sungai Besar that Prime Minister Najib Razak had given “positive” signals over the BN row in the past two weeks over Hadi’s hudud Bill.
Liow told the press that he had met Najib over the hudud Bill and conveyed the MCA’s view that the BN spirit and consensus must be respected to which the Prime Minister gave “a positive response.”
The Gerakan President, noted Lim, confirmed Liow’s statement. “He said that a Cabinet meeting resolved that the BN leadership will discuss and reach a ‘consensus’ on Hadi’s hudud Bill.”
Mah revealed that in the meeting with Najib and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over the hudud Bill, it was agreed that there would be a discussion among the BN leadership and a consensus decision would be made in accordance with the BN spirit. “I feel appalled about the quality, caliber and mettle of the present leaderships of the BN component parties,” lamented Lim.
In fact, said Lim, there’s already a 43-year-old BN consensus rejecting hudud in Malaysia. “There’s no need to reach a ‘consensus’ on Hadi’s hudud Bill.”
If there’s going to be a second consensus on the first consensus in the new fangled BN “consensus on a consensus”, Lim wonders what the first “consensus” was all about.
If the “first consensus” was to recognise the 43-year BN consensus to reject hudud law, Azalina’s ministerial motion has violated this consensus, argued Lim. “The 43-year BN consensus must stand and remain.”
“Azalina and Rosnah should be sacked as minister and deputy minister respectively for violating the 43-year-old BN consensus.”