By Danial Azhar, Free Malaysia Today (9 May 2022)
KUALA LUMPUR: The “weak” federal government provides a window of opportunity to pass an anti-hopping law, says PKR’s Wong Chen.
The Subang MP said the current administration had to listen to and accommodate the opposition and abide by the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with Pakatan Harapan (PH) because it had a fragile majority.
“We have been brought up to believe a strong government is a good government. But to me, a weak government is a government that reflects diversity of views.
“A weak government, or a coalition government, may bring about the reforms we need,” he said at an anti-hopping law conference held at Wisma Badan Peguam Malaysia today.
Wong Chen said it was difficult to pass legislation due to the amount of negotiations and compromise involved, but noted that the current political landscape was the perfect time to do so as no one party or coalition was dominant.
However, he said, the clock was ticking on passing an anti-hopping bill with the MoU on political stability signed between the Ismail Sabri Yaakob-led government and PH set to expire on July 31.
Another panellist at the conference, New Sin Yew of the Bar Council, agreed that now is the opportunity to pass the anti-hopping bill, but stressed that the elected representatives of Parliament must be aware of the people’s sentiments.
“Now is the window to capitalise on but we need to let our representatives know what we want and what empowers us as the rakyat,” he said, adding it was wrong to exclude the people from a process that concerns their vote.
An anti-hopping law is among the key components of the MoU that PH has been pushing for.
Last month, Ismail said a proposed law to ban party hopping by MPs was to be tabled in Parliament in July.
He said a parliamentary select committee would be formed to draft the anti-hopping law, which would include representatives from the government, opposition and possibly academicians with expertise on the matter.