The Selangor BN's motion for a feasibility study on hudud has been approved for debate and is likely to be tabled next week, Selangor speaker Hannah Yeoh said today.

Yeoh told a press conference at her service centre in Subang Jaya that she has received four motions for the coming state assembly sitting, all of them from BN representatives.

"Out of these four motions, I have approved three (and) rejected one.

"One of those I have approved is the motion to debate on hudud," she said.

The state assembly will convene on Monday.

The motion that was rejected deals with Selangor’s water rationing exercise, which Yeoh said has been raised in the assembly before and that there was no need to revisit the issue.

Addressing proposals from MCA and Gerakan leaders for the motion to be dropped, she said she owes it to the people of Selangor and state assemblypersons to allow debates on any issue that is valid and worth debating in the state assembly.

Instead of pressuring her, she said, the BN partners should deal with Selangor Umno instead, noting that it was one of their representatives, Sungai Air Tawar assemblyperson Kamarol Zaki Abdul Malik, who proposed the motion.

“I have approved motions from BN in the past simply because I believe that the state assembly is the right place for debate to take place. It does not matter if it comes from BN or Pakatan.

“I, as the speaker, have to be fair. If the motion deserves time in the assembly to be debated, we should.

“There is no point if everybody is talking about it outside (the assembly), but nobody wants to tackle it face-to-face,” she said.

When asked about Selangor DAP publicity secretary Ronnie Liu’s call to her to drop the motion, Yeoh reiterated that she has to remain neutral.

‘Selangorians want to see this debate’

She added that she doesn't see how BN can exploit the issue against Pakatan Rakyat, since it was an Umno representative who tabled the motion, and she believes Selangorians would like to see how this debate turns out.

Liu said in a statement last night that the motion should be dropped for, among others, concern that the issue could be played up and used as an avenue for BN to attack Pakatan in an attempt to break up the coalition.

He also claimed that since about half of Selangor’s population is non-Muslim, they would reject hudud anyway.

Yeoh (left) also stressed that the “carefully worded” motion only urges the Selangor state government to study whether it is feasible to implement hudud in the state, and is not a bill to introduce the syariah penal code.

Once tabled, it is up to the assemblypersons to debate on the issue and the put the matter to a vote. If the motion is passed, then the Selangor government would conduct the feasibility study and inform the assembly of its findings, she said.

Meanwhile, Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin lauded Yeoh’s decision to allow for the hudud study to be debated, saying that it shows maturity and the parliamentary speaker should learn from her example.

“Debates create better understanding for the issues concerned and generate a safe space for discussion.

“When we bring issues to the table we are giving ourselves a chance to identify the pros and cons and solutions to any of the problems surrounding the issue,” Zuraida said in a statement today.

On another issue, Yeoh said security at the Selangor state assembly has been tightened.

“The sanctity of the state assembly has to be preserved... We have to make sure what happened in Penang cannot and will not happen in Selangor,” she said.

Yeoh was referring to May 21 incident in which about 10 protesters stormed into the Penang state assembly looking for Seri Delima assemblyperson RSN Rayer over a remark he made that the group found offensive.

DAP backs S'gor speaker on hudud motion