PM given ultimatum to table anti-hopping bill at coming sitting, says Anwar

 

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (left) and other PH leaders met Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob (centre) on Jan 20 to discuss the anti-hopping bill in the coming parliamentary sitting. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan told the government last month that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between both sides would be declared void if the anti-hopping bill is not tabled at the next Dewan Rakyat sitting.

Speaking at the launch of PH and Muda’s election machinery in Johor, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said the coalition had told Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob that the MoU would be “automatically cancelled” if the demand was not met.

“The three of us (including Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng) brought up this anti-hopping law with Ismail when we met him.

“We told him there was no way the MoU could continue unless it (anti-hopping law) was approved at the next sitting of Parliament, which ends in March,” the PH chairman said.

“That was the starting point. If he agrees, negotiations can continue. If not, the MoU with the federal government would be automatically cancelled.”

PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil told FMT the meeting between the PH leaders and Ismail took place on Jan 20. Photos on Anwar’s Facebook page confirmed this, with the anti-hopping bill among the issues that were raised.

On the same day, law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the government would table the anti-hopping bill during the Feb 28 Dewan Rakyat sitting, stating that this was in line with Ismail’s desire to speed up the enactment of the anti-hopping law.

The federal government and PH signed the MoU on “political stability and transformation” last September, with Fahmi stating last month that 13 of the 18 items listed in the deal had been implemented as at Jan 19.

While PH said the MoU was aimed at restoring political stability following a change of government, thus allowing Ismail’s administration to better manage the Covid-19 pandemic and revive the economy, some quarters had accused the opposition coalition of compromising on its principles.

Although the MoU had seen PH-mooted measures such as a RM45 billion addition to the Covid-19 fund come to fruition, its critics claim the MoU appeared to be preventing PH from acting as an effective check-and-balance mechanism to the government, especially in areas such as its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economy.

In December, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said that “critical differences” between PH and the government parties had emerged since signing the MoU in certain areas such as the rule of law, good governance and respect for human rights. - FMT