Sheraton Move may recur even with Anti-Hopping Law in place - expert
KUALA LUMPUR - On July 28, the biggest political history in the country was made when Dewan Rakyat approved the Constitution (Amendment) (No. 3) Bill 2022 on the prohibition for the MPs to change parties or synonymously known as ‘party hopping’.
The bill had the support of two-thirds in Parliament, or 209 from 220 MPs after two split votes were done, while 11 MPs were absent.
The approval of the bill was important as Malaysia underwent changes in government leadership which involved the Prime Minister being changed thrice, with more than 40 MPs hopped parties after the 14th General Elections (GE14).
With the bill presented by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob himself, Malaysia was the 42nd country of 193 in the world that had successfully implemented the law related to anti-party hopping.
With the victory, the Ismail Sabri government had not only successfully completed one of the core importance under the memorandum agreement for the political truce with Pakatan Harapan (PH) even signalled that the party hopping culture was not relevant in the future.
However, the bigger question now remained if the enactment of the anti-hopping law would really end incidents like the Sheraton Move from recurring again?
The answer: maybe not.
“This is because among the questions that could be debated in the future is, why did the MPs from one bloc of the party move entirely, it is not considered as party hopping compared to individually hopping.
“Although the amendment of the bill relating to anti-party hopping can be considered an important foundation for transforming the Parliament and politics, I see the need for the government to enact another special law to deal with loopholes in this bill,” said International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) Constitution expert Professor Dr Nik Ahmad Kamal Nik Mahmood.
Another interesting point related to the bill was when Law Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi stated that the federal government gave freedom to the state government to implement and amend its respective state constitutions regarding the anti-party hopping bill without it being mandatory.
However, DAP Chairman Lim Guan Eng gave a different view when he stated that there should not be a different set of laws regarding the bill implementation between the states and the Federal Constitutions.
So far, only four states have amended the State Constitutions to emphasise the importance of the anti-party hopping provisions, namely Sabah, Penang and Sarawak.
“The fact is that the Central Government has the power to make each state oblige to amending their respective constitutions following the constitutional amendments included in the Eight Schedule of the Federal Constitution.
“It is very significant because the provisions of Article 71 of the Federal Constitution, all states must include their respective state constitutional enactments every matter is included in the Eight Schedule.
“Therefore, although the Federal Government looks like it is not pressuring the state government to standardise the set of laws, the state government needs to show political commitment in implementing it,” Nik Ahmad Kamal said.
By laying the foundation for the initiative to transform the country’s politics already achieved, the government’s road to achieve a higher level of political progress was still a long way to go.
The fact was acknowledged by Perak Assemblyman Dr Abdul Aziz Bari from DAP, even though the former constitutional expert was confident that the approval of the anti-party hopping provision at the Parliament level would be a catalyst for a better political change.
“The amendment of the anti-party hopping bill will certainly have weaknesses, but at least now I believe that no representatives of the people will not dare to jump parties at will.
“I want to explain that our journey to achieve the transformation of mature politics and integrity is still far off.
“With the anti-party hopping provision being approved, after this, we still need a special law to seriously overcome the issue of illegal political funds because it is also the main factor to party hopping.
“At the same time, the country’s political government agencies including the Election Committee need to be fair to opposition representatives including in the implementation of election practices,” he said.
