Cheers all around as leaders end hour-long meeting

KUALA LUMPUR: A good time to gauge the mood of the Barisan Nasional supreme council is when the doors swing open after their meeting ends.

The banter and body language of the component party leaders are all tell-tale signs of how the meeting went.

Before the media was allowed into the press conference with the coalition chairman, most of the other Barisan bigwigs would shuffle out of the room on the eighth floor of Menara Dato Onn at the Putra World Trade Centre.

Last night’s meeting had the media on tenterhooks.

The Private Member’s Bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act or RUU355 presented by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang was a hot topic and the meeting could have gone either way.

But when the doors finally opened, the sight which greeted the media was one of good cheer. There was no tension.

The component party leaders, dressed in identical blue shirts, were joking with each other after the hour-long meeting that started at 9.15pm.

Barisan chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, dressed in a light grey batik shirt, had the unenviable job of managing the differences in opinion among his component parties on RUU355.

Najib announced that Barisan had in the end decided to stick to its founding principle of consensus.

Despite efforts by Umno leaders to back the Bill, he admitted that Barisan did not have a consensus. As such, the Government would not table the Bill.

Critics have accused Umno of trying to bulldoze the Bill through.

But, according to a Barisan source, Najib himself has paid close personal attention to ensuring that the differences among the component parties do not get out of hand.

He has been meeting with component party leaders since early this month, getting their feedback and giving them information on the feeling among Umno’s leaders.

However, the issue is not yet over.

Najib said that it would be up to the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat to decide what would happen if the Bill is presented. As such, the ball is now in the Speaker’s court.

The Dewan Rakyat’s current meeting ends on April 6.