Party bosses seen to get ‘too much power’ with anti-hopping bill

 

Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah says she fears the proposed anti-hopping bill would discourage independent thinking among elected representatives.

PETALING JAYA: The anti-hopping bill must take into consideration the circumstances under which an elected representative could be deemed as having broken the law, says PKR’s Maria Chin Abdullah.

In a statement, she said, from her understanding, the anti-hopping bill punishes individuals who leave the party as well as those who are sacked by the party.

“It could be perceived as giving too much power to the political parties,” said Maria, who is MP for Petaling Jaya.

She said an MP or assembly member might be sacked for voting out of conscience (against their party’s wishes), or for pointing out that their party had breached its manifesto.

Under the proposed anti-hopping law, the person will be required to vacate the seat and a recall election will have to be called.

If that were the case, political party leaders would gain too much power and it would discourage independent thinking by elected representatives.

“These are the issues that need to be debated. However, it is also time that we stop irresponsible elected representatives from thinking they can decide to change allegiance in exchange for enticements.”

Two days ago, law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the tabling of the anti-hopping bill had been deferred again because the Cabinet had not agreed to tabling it on April 11.

It was reported that the government wanted to iron out pertinent matters like the definition of party-hopping and also to amend the Federal Constitution before tabling the bill.

Wan Junaidi said the special Dewan Rakyat sitting on April 11 would still go ahead with the tabling of a constitutional amendment to facilitate the tabling of the anti-hopping bill itself. - FMT