DAP’s Loke proposes Nazri heads ‘party-list’ proposal caucus

DAP MP Anthony Loke has proposed Umno’s Padang Rengas MP Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz to head a caucus of parliamentarians to study a proposal for the country to adopt a party-list system in elections to prevent party-hopping.

Loke (above), who is the DAP organising secretary, said “on principle”, he welcomed Nazri’s recent suggestion that the Election Commission Act 1957 be amended to enforce a party-list system.

“On principle, I support the suggestion. The seats won on party tickets should belong to the party.

“The candidates who win, cannot take the seat (with them) to other parties. This is except those who won as independent candidates.

“I propose Nazri leads a parliamentarian caucus to discuss and study further this matter and together, fight for this change. I am prepared to join this caucus,” Loke said to Malaysiakini.

The Seremban MP was referring to the proposal mooted by Nazri in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday which would allow parties to contest elections via candidates, whereby a constituency is tied to the winning party rather than the elected representative.

The former BN minister said this could put an end to party-hopping, eliminate the buying of MPs, and ensure political stability.

“For example, when a government falls and they want support. For some MPs, this is harvest time. Why? Because they can sell their seats. They are open to being corruptible.

“But if we contest based on party logos, we can’t sell ourselves,” he Nazri (photo) said.

The previous Pakatan Harapan government collapsed earlier this year, barely two years in power, after Bersatu and several rogue PKR MPs exited the then-ruling coalition to merge with Umno, PAS, and other parties to form the new Perikatan Nasional government.

A similar suggestion was forwarded by the Election Reform Committee to the previous Pakatan Harapan government.

Amanah communications director Khalid Samad said the proposal had its pros and cons.

“One of the pros is that it eliminates the possibility of individual parliamentarians jumping (parties). If they want to jump, the whole party must do it. That would be much harder but not impossible. Look at Bersatu, for example.

“If that situation, those who remain with Harapan, like (former premier) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, would lose their seats.

“Among the cons would be that members of Parliament are led by parties, the party leadership. This could lead to a dictatorship in the party as no one would dare voice out and everyone would be a ‘yes man’.

“The people would also not get the representative they want. The party can elect anyone. Everyone would be sycophants to the party president,” said the Shah Alam MP.

Even so, Khalid (photo) said the problem of party-hopping can only be resolved with the elected representative concerned resigning and re-contesting in another election.

PKR strategic director Sim Tze Tzin, meanwhile, felt the party-list proposal would be difficult to implement.

“I feel Malaysia is not ready for Nazri’s idea and the world may not be ready,” he said.

Sim referred to the proportional representation system being applied in Germany, which he said was a “hybrid” of constituency-based and party-based systems.

As such, he said Nazri would need to clarify his proposal further.

“If he (Nazri) is referring to proportional representation, we are open to this suggestion and we can debate it, but for this (to be achieved) we must involve constitutional amendments,” Sim (photo) said.

Even so, he said the country should first prioritise the enforcement of "Undi 18", which is the lowering of the voting age to 18 from 21, as well as automatic voter registration.

“We must prioritise Undi 18 to punish those who betray the party. With such betrayals, we hope the rakyat will punish the traitor.

“That is important as when there is high awareness (among the electorate), then no one would dare to betray the people’s mandate.

“We do not need to change the amendment for this but we want the people to rise to punish (party-hoppers) and at once, reject frogs and finally, the politics will be clean,” Sim said. - Mkini