Yii noted that however, the technicalities of ‘hopping’ was complex with multiple scenarios possible even in the act of hopping.
KUCHING (July 28): The Anti-Hopping Bill tabled in Parliament yesterday is a significant step towards preventing the rampant and despicable act of ‘political frogs’ defecting from the political parties they represent, says Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.
He said the tabling of the Bill was a result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the prime minister and Pakatan Harapan (PH) MPs, whereby one of the demands was for an anti-hopping law to be tabled to restore the people’s faith in democracy and the electoral process.
“The main consideration for this Bill is to ensure that a move such as the Sheraton Move, which betrays the mandate of the people, does not happen again,” he said in a statement yesterday.
The Dapsy National chief noted that however, the technicalities of ‘hopping’ was complex with multiple scenarios possible even in the act of hopping.
“One of the scenarios often mentioned is that it does not cover MPs who have been sacked by their party.
“This is important to ensure a political party is not too powerful and use such law to control their MPs to vote even if it is against the interest of the people, if not they will be sacked and lose their seats,” he said.
He said it also provided room for ‘conscious voting’ by MPs especially if the party they represent goes against their conscience or interest of people they represent.
“An MP in such a situation does not lose his seat if he or she goes against the party and is sacked or when they speak out especially if a party gets involved in corruption such as the 1MDB scandal,” he said.
On top of that, he said the exemption on MPs from deregistered parties not covered under the law is to ensure there is not too much power given to the Registrar of Societies (ROS).
“Otherwise, if the government of the day that intends to prosecute their political rivals, they can, through the ROS, deregister a political party and all of their MPs will lose their seats.
“This is against the spirit of democracy and justice,” he said.
Dr Yii said if the country had the anti-hopping law in place back then, the group of MPs led by Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali would not have betrayed their own party and defected, causing the PH government to collapse.
“So this Bill, while it may not be able to cover all scenarios and is not perfect, it is a significant step to restore the people’s confidence in the democratic system.
“Once tabled, we can review and strengthen the Act again but an important step must first be taken now to ensure the people’s mandate will not be betrayed again,” he said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, when tabling the Constitutional Amendment for the Anti-Hopping Bill in Parliament yesterday, said under the Bill, any MP who leaves a political party in a coalition to join another, whether in the same coalition or a different one, will lose their seat.
He said the term ‘Member of the House of Representatives’ refers to membership of a political party regardless of whether the outfit is part of a coalition or not.
He also said there were exceptions to the rule, for instance MPs would not lose their seats if their party was dissolved or deregistered; if they are elected as Dewan Rakyat Speaker; or if they are sacked by their political party.
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