Does it take 6 months to define ‘party hopping’?

 

When the government of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and leaders of Pakatan Harapan (PH) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on “transformation and political stability” on Sept 13, 2021, Malaysians sighed with relief.

They were especially happy that this would create some stability and allow the government to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and work towards economic recovery without having to worry about being toppled.

Many were extremely happy that the government had promised to introduce an anti-hopping law as part of the MoU and that all parties were in favour of it.

Most Malaysians would agree that the political turmoil besetting the nation since February 2020 has largely been due to unprincipled MPs jumping parties.

The PH government, a legitimate government elected by the people, collapsed in February 2020 because the majority of MPs in Bersatu, a coalition partner, decided to abandon PH. A group of MPs from PKR quit to later join Bersatu following the infamous Sheraton Move.

They had all won the elections as part of PH. They won in the 14th general election because voters wanted an alternative to the Barisan Nasional.

Even before Bersatu quit the PH coalition, a sizeable number of MPs, mostly from Umno, crossed over to Bersatu. Some from PKR also joined Bersatu.

Over the past two years, a few MPs crossed over to PKR while several Warisan MPs quit to support Gabungan Rakyat Sabah or become independent. There were, in fact, more crossovers than most of us can or want to remember.

If we take Melaka, the Umno-led government came into being in March 2020 following the defection of four assemblymen from the PH state government.

Last October, four assemblymen triggered fresh state elections when they withdrew their support for Melaka chief minister Sulaiman Md Ali’s government.

Two of the four later joined PKR and stood under PH tickets in the state polls, but lost.

So, a major reason for political instability is party hopping.

We were all led to believe that an anti-hopping bill would be tabled in the March (current) sitting of Parliament but we are now told by the government that it will have to be done later.

On March 18, law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told the Dewan Rakyat that the Cabinet had decided the anti-hopping bill required “further deliberation” with stakeholders from Barisan Nasional and Perikatan Nasional to ensure it could get sufficient support.

“Under Article 159 of the Federal Constitution we need two-thirds majority support in the Dewan Rakyat to amend the Federal Constitution,” he said.

He said letters had been issued to all party leaders for their feedback on the bill earlier this week.

Wan Junaidi said the bill would be tabled at a special sitting of Parliament but didn’t say when.

I had a bad feeling about this back in February when Wan Junaidi said there was no consensus on the term “anti-hopping” and that this was proving to be a problem for the government.

“Is it simply hopping from one party to another or from one coalition to another? How about unregistered and independent members who were expelled from parties? Is that considered party-hopping?” he had asked during an Agenda Awani programme on TV.

My question is this: Does it take such a long time to answer these questions? After all, the MoU was signed last September and we are in March now.

It’ll be interesting to see how PH reacts and whether it will withdraw from the MoU now that the anti-hopping bill has been delayed. Some would see it as a slap in the face for the opposition coalition.

On March 22, DAP national chairman Lim Guan Eng said the MoU “clearly stated” that an anti-hopping bill must be tabled and passed in Parliament by the first meeting of the year. This meant, he added, that the bill had to be passed by this month as the first meeting of Parliament for 2022 ends on March 24.

“If the prime minister and Malaysian government’s promises in black and white cannot be trusted, what meaning is there then to the MoU? If the prime minister breaches the MoU, wouldn’t it be cancelled?” he asked.

Amanah president Mohamad Sabu warned that opposition members would take to the streets if the government failed to table the anti-hopping bill.

“The people have lost confidence in the parliamentary democratic system and in the elected representatives. To fix this, the tabling of the anti-hopping bill must be expedited.

“If the bill isn’t introduced in this Dewan Rakyat meeting, my friends and I will take to the streets to push for it. It’s like we’re being ignored when we speak in Parliament. Table the anti-hopping bill immediately. This is the last warning from us,” he said.

PAS, which is part of the government, however said there was no need to rush. Its deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the opposition should sit down and iron out issues that could arise before the bill was tabled.

“For instance, if an independent candidate wins and then he joins a party, is that considered party hopping?

“In a more serious scenario, what if no single party can form a government, what happens then? Should we have another election?” he asked on March 22.

Excellent questions, but like I said earlier, does it take six months or more to answer them?

Surely people will suspect the government’s seriousness or commitment towards passing such a law.

Even former law minister Azalina Othman Said of Umno expressed disappointment over the delay.

“Isn’t the anti-hopping law considered a promissory guarantee of elected representatives to voters during an election? Aren’t the people our main stakeholders, and not the politicians themselves?” she asked.

Azalina added that neither Umno nor BN were supportive of any delay in debating the bill at the current parliamentary meeting.

So what or who is causing the delay in tabling the anti-hopping bill then?

In one of my earlier columns, I had said that it is not in the interest of political parties and politicians to have an anti-hopping law. This delay just goes to prove my point.

In January, we were told that 13 of the 18 items contained in the MoU – such as the implementation of matters concerning the Malaysia Agreement 1963, speeding up Undi-18 and automatic voter registration – had been implemented.

That’s good.

But if we do not want a repeat of crossovers by elected representatives, as happened after February 2020, we need an anti-hopping law and we need it well before the 15th general election. - FMT

The views expressed as those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.