Najib willing to support Hudud to stay in power, warns Dr M

Former PM tells The Australian that PM Najib Razak is ready to give his consent to stoning and amputations so that PAS supports his leadership.

(FMT) – Dr Mahathir Mohamad has told reporters of The Australian that Prime Minister Najib Razak is so desperate to cling to power that he is willing to sign off on the harsh Islamic law of Hudud that PAS is pushing for in Kelantan.

In the recent interview, the former premier said, “He’s (Najib) prepared to support these so-called Hudud laws where you decapitate people, chop off their hands, stone them to death.

“He doesn’t care what he does or what his policy is as long as he gets support. And he wants the support of the opposition PAS. The leader of PAS is talking to him.”

Mahathir, who gave up his Umno membership recently and has joined forces with Opposition politicians to oust Najib as prime minister, alleged Malaysia was “sliding towards” adopting more conservative Islamic principles.

He also alleged that Najib was not the moderate he portrayed himself to be at the global level.

“(Najib) is not a moderate in that sense. He wants to be a moderate for the world, but domestically he agrees with these extreme so-called syariah laws.”

Surveys by Merdeka Centre, an independent polling centre, however show that Najib’s support for Hudud has been a success and trickled down to the people with 73% of Malay Muslims showing support for the Islamic law as at February last year compared to only 47% in November of 2013.

Merdeka Centre programme director Ben Suffian told The Australian: “You have to see this Islamisation within the political context in ­Malaysia.

“(Najib’s) party in 2013 lost the popular vote and since then have been on the back foot because of the sliding economy and other scandals.

“(Embracing Hudud) is part of a grand strategy to try and split the Opposition.”