Guan Eng wants Umno to block RUU355


(The Sun Daily) – Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has questioned if the Barisan Nasional (BN) consensus is a farce if a private members bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 is tabled in Parliament this Thursday.

The Bagan MP said allowing Marang MP and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to table the bill after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak on March 29 said the BN government will not table the bill would be “a farce and and an exercise in mass deception of the public.”

He pointed out the fate of the bill lies with BN, the government of the day, by allowing the bill to be tabled for debate in Parliament and even be passed.

“After all, it is the government of the day that decides the business of Parliament and not the Speaker,” he said in a statement today.

The DAP secretary general said his party was concerned this was a way for the bill – widely known as RUU355 – to be passed without BN suffering public backlash.

He said the “negative brickbats” would come from allowing an unconstitutional measure to be passed by ordinary legislation instead of by constitutional amendment which needs a two-thirds majority vote.

He said the DAP stand on the issue was based on the substance of the Federal Constitution and that it was technically wrong to change the constitutional framework through a simple majority instead of through a constitutional amendment.

He said Malaysia can only move forward as one nation and one people to put RUU355 behind by ensuring the bill is not given priority and not put up for debate in Parliament.



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