Sarawak BN won’t support Hadi’s Bill

KUCHING: Sarawak Barisan Na­­sional will not support the Priv­ate Member’s Bill to amend the Sya­riah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act.

Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri Dr James Masing said this was in keeping with Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem’s strong stand against the implementation of hudud.

“Regardless of our parties, we take the same stance; Sarawak is a multi-racial state and we want to preserve our harmony.

“Because of our demography, we won’t support anything to do with hudud,” he said yesterday.

He said this in response to Adenan’s statement on Sunday that PBB, the backbone of the state Barisan, would not support the Bill tabled by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang in Parliament.

Adenan said that Sarawak, with its multi-racial population, could not accept such a law.

“The chief minister has taken that stance and he hasn’t changed it, which I’m very pleased about. He keeps his word,” said Masing, adding that he had directed PRS’ six MPs not to support the Bill when it comes up for debate.

Masing also said that the Bill posed a danger of allowing two se­­pa­­rate judicial systems in Malaysia.

“To me, that is a bigger problem. You cannot have two systems in one country when Article 8 of the Constitution says that all Malaysians are equal before the law.”

He expressed hope that Abdul Hadi would withdraw the Bill by the next parliamentary meeting in October.