KOTA KINABALU: Are Sabah assemblymen subject to the federal anti-hopping law even though the state has not adopted the legislation into its constitution?
This legal quandary is being raised by newly appointed Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia Sabah chapter secretary Abdul Kadir Abdullah Damsal amid an exodus of assemblymen, including members of his own party, led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, since December.
He raised this question as the Federal Constitution is “supreme”.
Abdul Kadir noted Article 75 of the Federal Constitution: “If any state law is inconsistent with a federal law, the federal law shall prevail and the state law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.”As such, he said there was a legal question of whether assemblymen in the states that had yet to adopt the anti-hopping law were in breach of the Federal Constitution.
According to him, the word “void” refers to “void ab initio” (invalid from the beginning), when the federal Anti-Hopping Law was enforced in October last year.
Thus, any hopping by an MP or state assemblyman to another party after October 2022 will be caught by the new Article 49A and Section 7A Part 1 of the Eight Schedule, respectively.
The incorporation of the Anti-Hopping Law into the state constitution was a mere matter of formality, where the Prime Minister would issue a request to each state in order to streamline the state constitution with the Federal Constitution, Abdul Kadir added.
“Parties like Warisan and Sabah Umno should not only seek the vacancy for seats where its assemblymen had recently quit to join Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat) but also for seats now held by former Bersatu assemblymen who have left the party for Gagasan Rakyat, from the Sabah Speaker,” said Abdul Kadir, a magistrate-turned-technocrat and politician.
Abdul Kadir, who was chief executive officer of three Sabah-based government-linked companies, was recently endorsed as Sabah Bersatu secretary by the party president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He is tasked with helping Bersatu vice-president Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee to rebuild the party after Hajiji led a massive defection from the party to Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) on Dec 8.
Bersatu lost all its 15 assemblymen during the defection and is left only with Kiandee, the Beluran MP, and a former federal minister.
Abdul Kadir, who is the Batu Sapi Bersatu division chief, hails from a Sandakan political family with two of his elder brothers previously holding the Sekong state seat.
Meanwhile, Hajiji dismissed as “baseless” his opponents’ claims that his party was buying assemblymen to cross the floor in support of his government.
The GRS chairman reiterated that all the assemblymen who changed their allegiance had done so of their own volition in their quest to look after the people’s interests.
“That is not true at all. You can ask the people’s representatives who crossed over. They think it is necessary to support the existing government in the interest of the state,” he told reporters in Tuaran, about 40km from here, yesterday.
Hajiji was commenting on recent claims made by Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and Sabah Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin in Parliament.
On Parti KDM president Datuk Peter Anthony’s decision to support the GRS government, Hajiji said he welcomed it.
Hajiji, who is now leading Gagasan Rakyat and its allies, has the support of just over two-thirds of the 79-member state assembly following the defections of opposition assemblymen from Barisan and Warisan after a failed coup last month.
On whether Sabah would table the anti-hopping law, Hajiji said he would discuss the matter at the state Cabinet.
Warisan lost nine of its 23 assemblymen to defections over the last two years while Sabah Barisan lost four earlier this month, with most joining Gagasan Rakyat.
There is talk that at least one to three Warisan assemblymen might quit the party in the next few days to throw their support behind Hajiji.
