Karpal's speech made no allowance for political correctness and pleasantries that often seek to suppress the message. His message on hudud laws is clear and consistent. One may not like to hear his statement or agree with him but one has to admit that he stands by his principle and stands ready to leave Pakatan Rakyat if needs be.
Please do remember a bit of election history. DAP lost almost all grounds when they teamed up with PAS, when PAS was adamant with hudud laws. Barisan still knows which button to push - hudud is a valuable political bogeyman for the Free People.
As for PAS, I admire their consistency as well. Their political party, being Islamic by nature, naturally stands by their raison d'etre. Nonetheless, immediately following Sept 11, they too lost many grounds in the election that follows the rise of Islamic terrorism. I can still remember Barisan's chant - PAS is the Taliban of Malaysia.
That explains why, PAS kept mum on the hudud laws during the March 08 election. The Pakatan Rakyat's manifesto does not include hudud laws. For this, I have to say that Karpal is right to make a stand. Should Anwar and PAS now say otherwise, it would be a deal-breaker. Either that or it's a DAP-breaker.
Thus, we have a Mexican stand-off for Pakatan Rakyat. I dare say that PAS is facing a political reality. Hudud laws are declined not by the Free People but also by the majority of muslims. The only difference is that the Free People are free to object while the majority of muslims can only hope that our voice is strong enough for they will be marked if they ever state otherwise.
A mistake that Karpal made is that he did not clear an open path for PAS to escape this hudud trap. He closed more political doors instead. As a partner in Pakatan, he should play a more diplomatic role in allowing PAS to either agree to lobby for the elements of hudud laws to be implemented under the current Malaysian Constitution (a compromise under a multi-cultural country) or to state that hudud laws cannot be implemented until some criteria are met.
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