Sin Chew defends its report on Mat Sabu
Sin Chew Daily today defended its front page report which quoted PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu as saying his party will amend the federal constitution to implement hudud should Pakatan Rakyat capture Putrajaya.
Sin Chew Daily today defended its front page report which quoted PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu as saying his party will amend the federal constitution to implement hudud should Pakatan Rakyat capture Putrajaya.
The daily said its reporter had, during the phone interview, confirmed with Mohamad, who is also known as Mat Sabu, that PAS intended to amend the constitution to implement hudud, even though the matter was yet to be discussed.
Sin Chew
lamented that the issue has been played up by the Internet media since this morning, but the newspaper said it was not able to contact Mat Sabu at press time.Sin Chew's question
According to the daily, its reporter called Mat Sabu on Sunday and asked:
"Can you explain the statement of PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, made after the party's political and election bureau meeting on Aug 25, that PAS will implement hudud through democratic procedures?"
Hadi's statement on this, Sin Chew Daily said, was reported by PAS organ Harakahdaily .
Mat Sabu's reply, the daily added, was:
"Democracy is to govern through ballot box, and change to any policy must be done through Parliament, and two-thirds support (in Parliament) is needed to amend the constitution."
Based on this remark, Sin Chew added, its reporter quoted Mat Sabu in the daily's evening edition on Monday as saying that PAS would amend the constitution through Parliament to implement hudud once it rules the federal government.
In an update later on the Sin Chew website in this evening, the daily said that after it found out that Mat Sabu had denied the report which appeared in an English daily, the Sin Chew reporter again called him on Monday afternoon for further clarification.
Mat Sabu reiterated that if any party wants to amend “any Act”, it will need to go through the Parliament, and that he didn't mentioned about hudud.
He also stated that the party had not discussed whether to table a motion to amend the constitution.
Reporter presses further
However, according to Sin Chew , its reporter pressed further by asking Mat Sabu: “The 'any Act', does it include hudud?”
Mat Sabu said “yes”. The reporter then further asked: “Can (I) say PAS ‘memang berhasrat’ (intend) to amend the constitution to implement any Act, including hudud, but at the moment has not discussed the matter of tabling a motion in Parliament?”, and Mat Sabu answered, “Can.”
As such, the newspaper amended its headline which appeared in its evening edition “Mat Sabu says PAS has decided to propose constitutional amendment to implement hudud should the Islamic party capture Putrajaya” to “Mat Sabu says PAS intends to propose constitutional amendment to implement hudud should the Islamic party capture Putrajaya”.
The daily added that it also called PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub today, and he said that PAS political bureau had decided last Saturday that only the party president can answer any question relating to hudud, and as such he couldn't comment on the matter.
