Tee said the party was acting racially against Muslims when it opposed the Bill proposed by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang. — YouTube videograb

KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Controversial columnist Ridhuan Tee Abdullah has pulled out as a member of MCA, accusing the ruling Barisan Nasional’s Chinese component of being anti-Islam after it objected to the Syariah Court (Criminal Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Bill 2016.

The Chinese Muslim who held a lifetime membership in MCA said the party was acting racially against Muslims when it opposed the Bill proposed by PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and expedited to the Dewan Rakyat last week, Ismaweb reported today.

"I do not want to bear the sins of being in a party which has become the enemy of Islam. With this I declare that I will quit from MCA," he was reported as saying in the newsportal of Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia.

Tee claimed he had waited for four years to become an MCA member as he wanted to prove he was not trying to become a Malay.

"But, this view of mine depreciated when this party is racist and has become an enemy to Islam. Whoever that is an enemy to Islam is also my enemy," he added.

Tee said he regretted MCA and Gerakan’s condemnation of the hudud Bill, claiming it was the right of Malaysian natives to seek the amendments, which the two had no standing to oppose.

“If MCA and Gerakan want their own lives, they should seek out their own land,” he said.

He then challenged MCA and Gerakan ministers to resign from the Cabinet immediately rather than wait for the Bill’s passage, and mocked their reliance on Malay support to be elected.

When contacted for confirmation, Tee told Malay Mail Online his decision to leave MCA was final.

“I was a member for almost 20 years with them and now they act like this. This is very disappointing, I am not changing my mind,” he said.

Tee also urged the Malays to evaluate what the non-Muslim BN components have contributed to their community in return for their support, and told them their “enemies” were now openly cooperating to oppose them.

Last Thursday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said tabled a motion to expedite the tabling of Hadi’s private member’s Bill in Parliament to amend the Shariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965.

However, Hadi asked to defer the Bill to the next parliamentary meeting in October.

The Bill seeks to empower shariah courts to enforce punishments ― except for the death penalty ― provided in Shariah laws for Islamic offences listed under state jurisdiction in the Federal Constitution, without elaborating on the nature of the punishments.

Shariah court punishments are currently limited to jail terms not exceeding three years, or whipping of not more than six strokes, or fines of not more than RM5,000.

Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak later sought to allay concerns about Hadi’s Bill, saying that it was not meant to implement hudud law but merely to enable the Shariah courts to impose “a few more” strokes of caning from the current maximum of six.