Good morning. No Parliament on Fridays. The talk in Parliament corridors and lounges yesterday was mostly still on the 355. Many PAS MPs whom I spoke to said they expected this betrayal from UMNO.
From all the fog, this much is clear, the UMNO BN government do have an alternative draft bill on 355. Due to Sarawak’s resistence, UMNO decided not to table it this round. I also believe that the BN big data team also confirmed the political findings similar to that of INVOKE’s survey, that the 355 actually has little political traction amongst Muslims. So this political football was stopped by pure political considerations.
Going forward, Hadi may still table his 355 motion next week. We cannot let our guard down on this. Note that Hadi can only table it with the help of UMNO BN.
In the mid term and closer to GE14; the UMNO BN 355 bill may be used if it helps them to work together with PAS. So we must still be vigilant in the June and October Parliament sittings.
As they say, the 355 saga is not over until the fat lady sings.