Wee: MCA raised hudud in Cabinet

KUALA LUMPUR: MCA has the black-and-white to prove that its party leaders did raise the issue of hudud in the Cabinet.

Party deputy president Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong stressed that the hudud issue was discussed by the Cabinet during three different sessions.

“Yesterday (Sunday) night, the party president and I reviewed the minutes of meetings of the last few Cabinet sessions,” he said at a press conference held at Wisma MCA yesterday.

Dr Wee said the minutes for the Dec 17 meeting as well as those for March 20 and March 27 had clearly recorded MCA’s stance against hudud.

Citing the Official Secrets Act, Dr Wee, who is also the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, regretted that he was unable to disclose the minutes.

However, he revealed that pages 89 to 95 (December last year), pages 108 to 116 and pages 39 to 45 (both for March this year) in the three respective minutes listed the discussions as well as the party’s stance on hudud.

Dr Wee issued the clarification following criticisms that MCA did not oppose hudud in the Cabinet.

He denied such accusations, calling them “grossly unfair”.

An online portal earlier reported that MCA neither opposed hudud nor raised the issue for discussion at Cabinet meetings, quoting Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin as well as International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz.

“The minutes that I’m looking at and those the other Cabinet ministers are reading are the same,” Dr Wee said, believing that Khairy’s comments could have been taken out of context.

The DAP also took the opportunity to attack MCA over this issue, with party veteran Lim Kit Siang alleging that MCA had faltered in its staunch stance against the implementation of hudud.

Dr Wee insisted that MCA’s stance against hudud has never changed since 1993.

He slammed DAP for “barking up the wrong tree”.

“If you (DAP) are brave enough, please stop your coalition partner (PAS) from implementing hudud, not shift the responsibility to the Federal Government,” he said.