PETALING JAYA: The pledging of support to the unity government by opposition lawmakers, a current trend seen in the Malaysian political landscape, cannot be easily curbed using the new anti-party hopping law, according to the chief architect of this legislation.
Tan Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (pic) said amending the Federal Constitution to address weaknesses in the new anti-hopping law may be too time-consuming and difficult.
He questioned the need, as suggested by several politicians, to amend the law under the Constitution to deal with the shifting allegiance of political party members.
“It’s not easy to amend the Federal Constitution. Even if you have a two-thirds majority to do so, how fast can it be done?
“It will take time as it must go through the same procedure we went through when we amended the Constitution previously,” the Senate president told The Star when contacted yesterday.
Wan Junaidi, who is a former federal minister in charge of laws and Parliament, said any proposed amendments will have to undergo the arduous task of consultations with political parties, including getting a consensus.
He was commenting on recent calls by Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal for a review of the anti-hopping law to plug loopholes involving “defections”.
On Sunday, Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan echoed the calls, saying that the loophole under the law should be dealt with through specific amendments.
This comes after four Bersatu MPs declared their support for the unity government and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim over the past month.
They are Kuala Kangsar MP Datuk Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid on Oct 12, Labuan MP Datuk Suhaili Abdul Rahman on Oct 30, Gua Musang MP Mohd Azizi Abu Naim on Nov 7 and Jeli MP Zahari Kechik on Nov 8.
The four continue to hold their seats as they did not switch parties.
An Anti-Party Hopping Bill was supposed to have been tabled in Dewan Rakyat on March 24 last year, but was deferred to a special one-day sitting on April 11 to allow for more engagement.
However, the Bill was referred to a Special Parliamentary Select Committee for further scrutiny while the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill 2022 was instead tabled to pave the way for the law.
On July 28 last year, the Dewan Rakyat passed amendments to four paragraphs and six clauses under the Constitution, which came into force on Oct 5 the same year.
Among them is a clause that MPs who defect from the political party they represented as election candidates or those who become independent will have to vacate their parliamentary seats.
However, there are exemptions for MPs who change political parties when their former parties have been deregistered, or if they are appointed to become Speakers of the House.
MPs who are sacked from political parties will not lose their seats.
Also not affected by the law are MPs who vote against their party line.
Meanwhile, Wan Junaidi said the respective political parties could take the faster and easier way of resolving current weaknesses in the law.
“The simplest thing to do is to amend your own party constitution so that if a member goes against a party decision, policy or stance, his membership is automatically terminated,” he said.
Another way, he said, is for the respective party whips to issue written instructions to their MPs to tow the party line each time before Parliament sits.
He said the party can then write to inform the Dewan Rakyat Speaker if an MP has gone rogue.
“The Speaker will have 20 days to decide on the fate of the MP concerned,” he added.
Wan Junaidi said this mechanism was initially included in the Anti-Party Hopping Bill last year, but was rejected by the then Perikatan Nasional administration.
Last Saturday, Pakatan Harapan secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail revealed that Perikatan had rejected the proposal that MPs acting against the decision of the party whip in the House would lose their seats and by-elections should be held.
