They said PAS has gone beyond the agreement with its PR allies to "agree to disagree" over hudud by tabling an almost entirely new enactment in its legislative assembly instead of a few changes as it originally said it would.
"While PKR respects the right and stance of the Kelantan state government to table this enactment, we would have preferred if the state government had also respected the consensus made earlier with Pakatan Rakyat," read the statement, which was signed by PKR's president, deputy president and several other top party leaders.
The statement expressing disappointment with PAS was jointly issued by PKR leadership, including president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, secretary-general Rafizi Ramli and the heads of its women and youth wings Zuraida Kamaruddin and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, just as the Kelantan legislative assembly passed its hudud bill amendments unanimously today.
On February 8, Deputy Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Amar Nik Abdullah told the PR leadership council that the hudud bill would only amend four items in the Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II 1993, but the draft given to PKR on March 12 detailed the entire enactment over 34 pages long.
"PKR had earlier respected the state government's decision because we felt it was not about a new law and does not change the status quo. The amendments, as informed to us by Nik Amar, were still within the agreed PR framework and consensus regarding hudud.
"After seeing the draft, although the contents were not much different than the original 1993 enactment, we find that it does not honour the consensus we had reached by PR in 2011," PKR said.
In 2011, it was agreed among the three opposition parties that hudud was not a mutual agenda to the coalition but they accepted that it was a PAS struggle that started even before the inception of PR.
Although it was agreed that it was unreasonable to force PAS to abandon the agenda, it was decided that all policies involving PR and their implementation must have the agreement of all three parties.
PKR said in its view all Muslims must accept hudud as the Quran and Prophet Muhammad had stated the penalties for six crimes – sariqah (theft), hirabah (armed robbery), zina (adultery), qazaf (false accusation), syurb (alcohol consumption) dan riddah (apostasy).
However, legislating the Islamic penal code and enforcing it in the context of the legal system and the situation of a certain society could be discussed, the party said.
"We hope that differences in opinions about legislating and implementing hudud will not be mistaken as opposing hudud," PKR said, adding that the people's understanding of Islamic laws and their objectives must also be improved.
The party also said correcting injustice in society and defending the people's welfare should be given higher priority that implementing hudud on the six offences, although it stressed that PKR is not rejecting God's law in dealing with the crimes.
"We believe that injustice and welfare are more important issues to tackle now because the people are just recovering from a flood disaster, and dealing with challenges due to corruption and power abuse by the ruling power," PKR said, adding that other Islamic movements in the world such as in Turkey and Tunisia had also taken the same approach previously.
"Prior to this, even PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang's stand was that implementing hudud was not the main priority in society," it said.
Due to such considerations, PKR said it was taking a different stand on the priority to implement hudud now and had instructed its sole rep in the Kelantan legislative assembly to refrain from taking part in the voting and debate on the hudud bill today.
PKR also urged the people not to fall for "Umno's tricks" that had politicised hudud to break up the unity of those who are against the Barisan Nasional party, and to focus on the struggle to change the federal government.
"The differences in opinions over the implementation of hudud will be twisted to look as if they (Umno) are the ones championing Islamic laws while others are rejecting Allah's law.
"If Umno is sincere and ready to implement hudud, the federal government would have welcomed the first move made by the Terengganu government before this at parliament level.
"Its refusal all this time is proof that Umno is only interested in politicising hudud at the time when its position is under threat," PKR said.
- TMI
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