DAP national vice-chair M Kulasegaran contended that Umno was more complicit on hudud than that DAP’s dalliance with PAS had encouraged the latter’s obduracy on the Islamic penal code.
The Ipoh Barat MP said this in rebutting MIC president S Subramaniam’s argument that DAP could not absolve itself of responsibility for the tabling of PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s bill on hudud in Parliament on May 26.
Subramaniam had deployed this argument while campaigning in the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections, where he said that DAP had all along known of PAS’s true nature and chose to be irresponsibly negligent on the threat.
“There’s nothing wrong is believing in a progressive mind-set and trusting to its beneficial effects over time and among peoples,” said Kulasegaran in rebuttal.
“We knew PAS had its progressives and its conservatives. What grave fault can there be in trusting to the triumph of religious moderation over literalism, progress over obscurantism?” argued the federal legislator.
He said that Subramaniam’s tarring of Amanah with the same brush as PAS was as blind as his attribution of willfulness to DAP’s dalliance with PAS in the Pakatan Rakyat phase of opposition politics.
“Amanah would not have been formed if there were no political differences between the progressives and the conservatives of the former PAS,” observed Kula.
“That DAP is now in collaboration with Amanah is a continuation of our belief in the hope of moderation’s eventual triumph over religious literalism,” he said.
“In the end, this is a more sustainable and credible stance than MIC’s persistence with an Umno that plays fast and loose with fundamental tenets of our constitution,” he commented.
“DAP does not play fast and loose on fundamentals. We persuade, cajole and, then, when it is no go, we go separate ways.
“That’s what we have done with PAS, but MIC leaves itself hostage to Umno’s view of where its survival lies. That's the big difference between us,” maintained Kula.
The Ipoh Barat MP said this in rebutting MIC president S Subramaniam’s argument that DAP could not absolve itself of responsibility for the tabling of PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s bill on hudud in Parliament on May 26.
Subramaniam had deployed this argument while campaigning in the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections, where he said that DAP had all along known of PAS’s true nature and chose to be irresponsibly negligent on the threat.
“There’s nothing wrong is believing in a progressive mind-set and trusting to its beneficial effects over time and among peoples,” said Kulasegaran in rebuttal.
“We knew PAS had its progressives and its conservatives. What grave fault can there be in trusting to the triumph of religious moderation over literalism, progress over obscurantism?” argued the federal legislator.
He said that Subramaniam’s tarring of Amanah with the same brush as PAS was as blind as his attribution of willfulness to DAP’s dalliance with PAS in the Pakatan Rakyat phase of opposition politics.
“Amanah would not have been formed if there were no political differences between the progressives and the conservatives of the former PAS,” observed Kula.
“That DAP is now in collaboration with Amanah is a continuation of our belief in the hope of moderation’s eventual triumph over religious literalism,” he said.
“In the end, this is a more sustainable and credible stance than MIC’s persistence with an Umno that plays fast and loose with fundamental tenets of our constitution,” he commented.
“DAP does not play fast and loose on fundamentals. We persuade, cajole and, then, when it is no go, we go separate ways.
“That’s what we have done with PAS, but MIC leaves itself hostage to Umno’s view of where its survival lies. That's the big difference between us,” maintained Kula.
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