Guan Eng continues to push for anti-hopping law

Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng says the anti-hopping law proposal will be formalised to include views from other fellow Pakatan Rakyat state reps.

KUALA LUMPUR: Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng will go ahead with his “anti-hopping” law enactment plan, even though it will go against Anwar Ibrahim’s pursuit of more defections in Sabah.

Lim said that he will bring his plan to the state’s top-level meeting to formalise a proposal.

Lim had announced the proposal last week, a move that drew flak from the ruling coalition who described the move as hypocritical when the opposition leader, his ally, is openly courting lawmakers in the key state of Sabah ahead of national polls.

Two Barisan Nasional MPs, one of them a deputy minister, had recently resigned from the ruling coalition citing as reasons their disillusionment with Putrajaya’s inability to deal with the state’s longstanding illegal migrants issue.

While Umno’s Beaufort parliamentarian Lajim Ukin is vague about his political leaning, Upko’s Tuaran representative Wilfred Bumburing said he will be campaigning for the federal opposition bloc Pakatan Rakyat.

Anwar was believed to have engineered the defections. The PKR de facto leader also said that more “surprises” are expected in the near future.

Lim was questioned on his position on the defections but avoided criticising it openly, saying the DAP’s silence on the two defections is “self-explanatory”.

“Have we commented on that? I believe that is self-explanatory,” the Bagan MP told a press conference at the party’s headquarters here.

Legal blockade

Pakatan leaders had said that any proposals for new policies will have to observe its binding Common Policy Framework which adheres to only what is provided in the Federal Constitution. The anti-hopping law is not one of them.

Lim’s decision will only be proposed in Penang where his party controls two-thirds of the state’s legislative assembly. He said there are no plans to raise this with Pakatan’s top leadership.

“Let’s take it step by step. One at a time,” he said when asked if his proposal underwent any consultation with the bloc’s presidential committee.

The Penang CM said the law was needed to ensure a fair democratic practice of allowing voters a chance for a re-election in the event of a defection.

But with no provisions in the constitution, Lim will first have to overcome legal blockades before he can implement the proposal similar to his earlier plan to restore the local-government elections which was outlawed by Parliament about four decades ago.

BN leaders already chided the proposal as a violation to Article 10 of the Federal Constitution that guarantees freedom of association.

Lim, however, said his anti-hopping law will not stop lawmakers from defecting to other parties but only force them to resign as elected representatives to pave way for by-elections.