Anti-hopping law: Select committee's 7 posers to interest groups revealed

 

Interest groups were asked seven questions on the “parameters” of laws to restrict MPs from switching parties by the special select committee tasked with designing such a law.

This was revealed by electoral reform pressure group Bersih, which made public their answers to the seven questions. The deadline for submission by interest groups was today.

This gave a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the select committee formed on April 11 but has offered little transparency on their activities.

The seven questions are as follows:

1. Whether the implementation of the provisions to prohibit members of the Dewan Rakyat to change parties should consider limiting the amendments to the Federal Constitution only or should it include the drafting of a specific Act as well?

2. Whether an independent MP should be subject to the provisions restricting MPs from changing parties?

3. Whether a member of the Dewan Negara (Senate) should be subjected to or considered for the provisions restricting MPs from changing parties? Please explain.

4. Whether it is reasonable to regard expulsion of an MP by his/her party as changing party and should his/her seat be vacated?

5. Whether an MP who uses another party’s symbol during an election is required to become a member of that party? If yes, would that action be considered as changing the party and his/her seat be vacated?

6. (i) Whether an MP who leaves his/her party and become a member of another party in the same coalition be considered as changing parties and have to vacate his/her seat?
(ii) Whether an MP who leaves his/her party and become a member of another party in a different coalition be considered as changing parties and have to vacate his/her seat?

7. Whether the provisions to restrict party-hopping be imposed on members of State Legislative Assemblies? Please explain.

These questions were posed by the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department on behalf of the select committee to Bersih and others on April 27 as part of their consultation process with civil society and other stakeholders.

Silence from committee

Neither the select committee nor the Legal Affairs Division has been transparent on who or which other entities had been consulted. The dates of future select committee meetings have not been revealed either.

So far, chairperson of the select committee and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar had only issued one press statement on the committee meetings, which only revealed that written submissions were being sought.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar

He said he was compelled to ensure the secrecy of discussions and documents, citing Standing Order 85.

Nevertheless, Bersih, stressing the need for transparency, had made their entire submission public. [See attached document below]

“We have made known all our views, positions and recommendations on party-hopping in statements and research reports these past two years, and we want to put this submission to the PSSC in the public domain,” said Bersih.

The bill to discourage MPs from switching parties was a cornerstone clause in the confidence-and-supply agreement between Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and Pakatan Harapan.

It was supposed to be passed during the first sitting of the Dewan Rakyat this year. That deadline lapsed on March 24.

Ismail Sabri proposed to have the bill tabled and passed on April 11. But on April 6, the cabinet made substantial changes to the bill.

At the eleventh hour before the tabling of the bill, Ismail Sabri and Harapan agreed to postpone the process until a new select committee fine-tunes it.

Ismail Sabri has not set a firm deadline for the passing of the bill, while Wan Junaidi’s last public statement on the matter saw him opining that the bill should be passed “before the 15th general election”.

However, based on previous statements from Wan Junaidi, the tabling of the bill was unlikely to happen earlier than June 7 while the third meeting of the Dewan Rakyat was previously scheduled to begin on July 18.

- Mkini