PARLIAMENT | If nothing will be decided in Parliament today with regard to the anti-hopping law, Mohd Azis Jamman (Warisan-Sepanggar) questioned why lawmakers were called for a special parliamentary meeting.
He said there is nothing in the proposed constitutional amendment that appears to be relevant to party-hopping.
“Not only that, but the proposed anti-hopping law is also not on our table. Therefore, why are we here? I thought the special meeting was meant (to pass) the anti-hopping bill.
“Now there might be another special meeting again. Why did they call (for this meeting) today? Why not just do it at the same time (the constitutional amendment and the anti-hopping bill), seeing as plane ticket prices from Sabah to Kuala Lumpur are far more expensive than to European countries,” Azis (above) said in the Dewan Rakyat.
The special parliamentary meeting was initially for the House to decide on the constitutional amendment which will pave the way for an eventual law addressing lawmakers switching parties.
However, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar indicated in his speech in the Dewan Rakyat that there will be no voting on the amendment today as the matter will be referred to a special select committee for further refinement.
Earlier, opposition leaders Anwar Ibrahim (Pakatan Harapan-Port Dickson) and Anthony Loke (Harapan-Seremban) also said in the Dewan Rakyat that the constitutional amendment and the anti-hopping bill should be tabled and voted on simultaneously.
‘Lost and confused’
Ahmad Hassan (Warisan-Papar) echoed Azis in his disappointment with the proposed constitutional amendments which he said do not say anything about party-hopping and can be interpreted too broadly.
“What needs to be clarified here is that there is no guarantee that the proposed amendment is only to be used to stop elected representatives from jumping to other parties, without any other purposes,” he stressed in his debate.
Ahmad also questioned the conflicting time frame for the anti-hopping bill as stated by Wan Junaidi – who said it would be done in the July parliamentary session – and the Pakatan Harapan leadership, who are insisting that the matter be finalised by May.
“Can we believe all this? Because one date after another, in the end, we are the ones who are lost and confused,” he added. - Mkini
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