‘Hadi’s Hudud Bill: BN minister calls the shot, not Speaker’
KUCHING: All the talk by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that the government will not adopt PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s Hudud Bill and that it is up to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker to determine whether the Bill will be tabled and read out in Parliament are just ‘play- acting’ choreographed by Umno and PAS.
According to Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, whether the Hudud Bill will be tabled in Parliament is up to a Barisan Nasional ( BN) minister to call the shot and not the Speaker of the House to determine.
“Though the Speaker is the person who chairs the parliamentary meeting, the agenda for the meeting is determined by BN ministers. Therefore, whether the Hudud Bill will be tabled in the current parliamentary sitting, it is solely up to the BN minister,” he said in a statement yesterday.
He said before the parliamentary meeting starts each day, the agenda of the meeting ( Order Paper) will be laid on the table of all MPs.
“The Order Paper will set down the number of Government Bills to be debated in Parliament, to be followed by other motions or bills submitted by the ordinary MPs.
“The agenda in the Order Paper is determined by a BN minister, not the Speaker who is only there to follow the instruction of the BN ministers.
“For example, in today’s Order Paper, there are 12 Government Bills to be debated before Hadi’s Hudud Bill which is listed as 13th in the Order Paper. By the norms of our Parliament sittings which ends at 5.30pm everyday, and the usual debates on every Bill, it is impossible that in the next two days of sitting ( last days of sittings in this session), it will reach Hadi’s Bill. Once the session of sittings ends, all undebated bills will remain undebated,” he said.
However, he said there were two ways by which the Bill can be debated despite the fact that it was listed as the 13th.
“The two ways are either a minister moves a motion to extend the time of the meeting to beyond 5.30pm for the day, so that there will be more time to debate and pass the Government Bills and Hadi’s Hudud Bill or a minister moves a motion to withdraw some of the undebated Government Bills so that the Hudud Bill can be tabled and read out in Parliament before the meeting ends for the day.
“Either way, it is a minister who moves the motion and the Speaker has no power to reject the motion. As for today’s (yesterday) meeting, a minister has moved that it will only end at 11.30pm. Yesterday’s ( Tuesday) meeting, upon motion by a minister, went all the way up to 12.30 midnight. Probably, all these arrangement were done to pave the way for Hadi’s Bill to be tabled in Parliament today.”
Chong, who is also state DAP chairman, said since he was first elected as MP in 2004, he has never seen any Bill submitted by an ordinary MP being tabled and read out in parliament.
“This is because there are always so many Government’s Bills to be debated till the end of the every session of meetings. At the end of every session of meetings, those undebated Government Bills will remain undebated and will be re-tabled in the next session of meetings.
“The only exception to this norms is Hadi’s Hudud Bill which was given priority and precedence over the Government Bill. It happened last year and it is likely to happen again tomorrow.”
He said this was obviously a conspiracy or understanding between Umno and PAS so that the Government Bills will either be rushed through or withdrawn to allow Hadi to formally table and read out his Hudud Bill in Parliament.
“The fact that Hadi was able to table and read out his Act355 Hudud Bill in Parliament means that he has already obtained the consent to do so from Datuk Seri Najib and his cabinet.
“Therefore, all this talk by the prime minister is simply a playacting choreographed by Umno and PAS.
“Ask any MPs, former MPs, or those who know the workings of Parliament, and they will tell you that the Agenda for the meeting ( Order Paper) is determined by BN ministers not the Speaker and that what Najib said is a blatant lie,” he said.