KOTA KINABALU: Yong Yit Jee, a member of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Supreme Council cum lawyer said that the government may miss the best timing to pass Anti-Party Hopping law by postponing the tabling of the Bill and the Anti-Party Hopping law that the people want will not be implemented in the foreseeable future.
The Malaysia de facto law minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said that the Cabinet decided to postpone the tabling of Anti-Party Hopping and Limiting Tenure of the Prime Minister (PM) Bills from its initial deadline 24.3.2022 because more input was needed from stakeholders, “particularly” Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN).
“Actually, the people and most politicians hate party-hopping. Whether it’s BN, PN, Pakatan Harapan (PH) or other opposition political parties, all of them have been the victims of party-hopping in the past four years. All members of parliament should remember the feeling of being betrayed by allies and the indefensible embarrassment of facing voters and grassroots leaders after their former allies “hopped””, he says.
Political leaders should not be carried away by temporary victories because the people are disinterested with sweet talk and election manifestos. The people will instead use stricter standards against political leaders. Nowadays, any victory that betrayed the will of the voters would not last long. The people will also remember which politicians delayed the Anti-Party Hopping bill and won’t support them.
Yong also says that after many political instabilities in Malaysia, it is rare that the PM Dato’ Seri Ismail Sabri and opposition PH reached consensus and signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The politicians need to think from the people’s perspective and pass the Anti-Party Hopping law soonest possible.
DAP former secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said that the PM will meet PH this week to discuss and clarify about the MoU and said that the MoU is ‘finished and ended’ if it’s not tabled and passed as promised.
“If the MoU is “finished”, then the implementation of Anti-Party Hopping and Limiting Tenure of the Prime Minister laws are basically not possible in the foreseeable future”, he says.
“What the people want is for the economy to recover soonest possible and easing of their burden. The Ukrainian-Russian war has exacerbated global inflation, especially in Sabah, where 80% of goods are imported. The people wish for the country to be more democratic and prevent the abuse of power. Anti-Party Hopping and Limiting the PM’s tenure is a key step towards that goal.”
“Therefore, I urge the federal government to table these two Bills as soon as possible. I also hope that the opposition MPs will support this *Bill* together to reduce the political instability in Malaysia.”-pr/BNN
