KUCHING: The message from voters has been loud and clear. They do not appreciate the kind of political manoeuvres where their elected representatives changed parties and caused the collapse of a state or federal government.
Senior Fellow at the Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research, Dr Azmi Hassan wasn’t surprised that the unfettered culture of party-hopping resulted in the unanimous passing of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill (No. 3) 2022 and the Provision for the Prohibition of Members of Parliament in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
“Of course, we should thank and appreciate the 209 members of Parliament (MPs) who voted for the bill, but most importantly, we should also realise why they voted even though there were groups that initially opposed it, especially those in the government.
“This is because the Melaka, Johor state elections as well as (to some extent) the Sarawak state polls results showed that the voters did not appreciate party-hopping leaders. The voters had voiced out their displeasure and the MPs became aware of it, so the bill got 100 per cent support in the Parliament,” he said.
Azmi thinks that the passing of the bill will stabilise Malaysian politics, promote mature political culture and put an end to the whims and fancies of party hopping politicians.
He hoped that the law would be gazetted as soon as possible. The best timing would be before the 15th General Election (GE15) to boost the confidence of the voters.
The bill, he said, was not something unique to Malaysia as the majority of democratic nations have their versions.
In fact, in Singapore, the law is more stringent. In Malaysia, if an elected representative is ejected by a party for whatever reason, he or she can keep his/her seat.
But in Singapore, if an elected representative is sacked by a party, that person will automatically become seatless.
“They (Singapore) have had this law since 2000. But in Malaysia, we only need it now, mostly because after GE14, the federal government collapsed due to a slim majority caused by defections.
“It proved how the whims and fancies of one or two MPs can cause a government to collapse. That’s the main reason we need it now. We didn’t see the need for such a law before as the Barisan Nasional always had a very healthy majority,” he explained.
Azmi said the anti-hopping law was made specifically for the MPs but could be emulated by state legislatures to stabilise politics at the state level.
“I think having the law as part of the federal constitution is strong enough morally and in terms of etiquette to discourage state lawmakers from defecting from party to party like before. I don’t think any state lawmaker would want to deliberate switch parties knowing that the federal law prohibits it. In this way, it helps to stabilise the federal government right down to the states including Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
