Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran asked if this was the reason for the two parties’ “total silence” when the amendments to the LRA was deferred on April 6, adding it was “baffling”.
“Subramaniam and Liow Tiong Lai have to explain their silence on the LRA amendments deferments. Silence is not golden in this issue.
“They will also have to answer an important question that the public wish to know – when the BN supreme council agreed that the government should not take over the tabling of (PAS president) Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill, was there an agreement and a compromise that the LRA amendment bill would be deferred?” Kulasegaran said.
He then repeated his call, first made a week ago on April 10, for the Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties to state their stand on the deferment of amendments to the LRA that would disallow unilateral conversion of minors.
Last week, Kulasegaran had asked whether there had been a BN consensus to defer the LRA amendments, similar to the way in which MCA and MIC had objected to BN tabling PAS’ shariah amendment bill.
He was referring to Prime Minister Najib Razak’s surprise announcement on March 29 that the government would not adopt PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (Act 355).
Najib, who is also BN chairman, said the decision had taken into account the consensus of BN component parties MCA, MIC and Gerakan.
Kulasegaran, who is also DAP national vice-chairman, pointed out that both MIC president S Subramanim and MCA president Liow Tiong Lai had been involved in efforts to resolve issues related to the LRA through legislative amendments in Parliament.
However, he added that there had been no protest from either leader when the deferment was announced.
The marriage and divorce bill had been slated for second reading in the recent Dewan Rakyat sitting. However, on April 6, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said it would be postponed to the next sitting of the Dewan Rakyat.