Hudud will never be PAS’s trump card in elections, says DAP
The implementation of hudud could have cost Pakatan Rakyat dearly in last year's 13th general election, including losing Selangor, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said today.
He said that if the issue of hudud had been raised during last year's polls, Barisan Nasional might have regained its two-thirds majority.
"In fact, both Kedah and Johor would have reverted back to being invincible Barisan Nasional 'fixed deposit' states," Lim said in a statement.
The Gelang Patah MP said when PAS Terengganu included the hudud issue in its 2008 state election manifesto, it did not result in additional support for PR.
"PAS only won one parliamentary seat and improved on the number of state assembly seats from four to eight," Lim said.
"BN's support decreased by 11% nationwide between 2004 and 2008. But in Terengganu, it only fell by 0.5%."
This, Lim said, should be an indication that Terengganu voters prioritised other issues above the implementation of hudud.
"Even if PAS had insisted that PR include hudud as part of its manifesto for GE13, DAP would never have agreed to such a proposal," Lim said.
In the 1999 general election, PAS and PKR won all eight parliamentary seats in Terengganu because the rakyat were angry with Umno.
"The arrest of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the Reformasi movement resulted in the opposition winning 28 out of 32 state assembly seats in the east coast state."
However, Lim said, after passing the state hudud enactment in 2001, PAS and PKR only managed to retain one of the eight parliamentary seats in 2004.
Last year, however, when hudud was not explicitly campaigned by PAS, PR won four out of eight parliament seats and 15 of 32 state seats in Terengganu.
"The exclusion of hudud in PAS's state manifesto did not cause the party to lose any ground in Terengganu," Lim said.
He highlighted three different scenarios in the event hudud had been implemented, assuming that PR would have garnered an additional 1% Malay support.
"Under the different scenarios, the damage for PR in terms of its non-Malay support would have been significant.
"PR's support for hudud may have resulted in non-Malay support for the coalition dropping by between 10% and 20%."
In all of the scenarios, PKR would have been the biggest loser since many of the ethnically mixed PKR seats were won with relatively smaller majorities (compared with DAP seats).
Therefore, Lim said, PR would have lost out as a whole as BN would have regained its two-thirds parliamentary majority.
"The hudud issue has never been and will never be a vote winner for PAS based on past electoral evidence." – April 24, 2014.
