MPs had ‘misgivings’ about anti-hopping legislation, says ex-speaker

Former Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Azizan Harun says legislators need to ‘go back to the drawing board’ to formulate a comprehensive law to curb party-hopping among MPs. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Former Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Azizan Harun believes loopholes in the country’s anti-hopping laws stemmed from “misgivings” among MPs about the effectiveness of legislation to curb the practice.

Although the Federal Constitution is “the mother of all laws”, Azhar said it can only state policy in general terms.

“I would have preferred it if a proviso was inserted to the article (in the constitution) relating to freedom of association.

“That proviso should empower Parliament to enact laws to prevent MPs from switching allegiances from the party on whose ticket they were elected to a rival party,” he told FMT. 

But Azhar said MPs had their “misgivings” about setting out the actual law in an Act of Parliament.

Their primary concern, he said, was that such a law could easily be amended or even repealed at any time by a simple majority in Parliament.

On the other hand, an anti-hopping law in the form of a constitutional amendment, would require a two-thirds majority, making it more difficult to amend or repeal, he said.

“As a result, what we have now is a barebones legislation. We need to go back to the drawing board,” said Azhar, who served as Elections Commission chairman prior to taking over as speaker of the lower house on July 13, 2020.

Although he presided over the passing of the constitutional amendment which introduced Article 49A into the constitution, Azhar said he was not in a position to ventilate his views on the matter.

“The speaker has no right to voice his own opinions,” he said.

Azhar said there is an urgent need to plug loopholes in the anti-hopping law to prevent a repeat of events which saw six Bersatu MPs who announced their backing for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government without resigning as members of their party.

On March 2, Bersatu amended its party constitution to provide that an elected representative’s membership would be automatically terminated if they go against a party directive.

The situation has resulted in a standoff between the party and the rebel MPs who insist that they remain party members.

Azhar had on Sunday expressed his unhappiness with the way the anti-hopping law was enacted in 2022.

Speaking in an interview with podcast host Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Azhar said the anti-hopping law had been enacted hastily without considering the various scenarios which may play out.

He said he had expressed his reservations about the proposed new law to a few MPs.

Although they listened, Azhar said he was “not sure what they did after that”. - FMT