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BERSIH views with concern the remarks of law minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar that there is still no consensus on the term “anti-hopping” as each political party may have their own definition of what it means and what it covers.
He said this on a segment on Astro Agenda’s Stabilising Malaysia’s Democracy segment on February 15.
We are also disappointed that a consultation meeting with civil society organisations (CSOs) called by the law minister today has been postponed due to the high number of Covid-19 cases.
Bersih and other CSOs were looking forward to engaging with the minister’s department and the Attorney-General’s Chambers over a range of reform proposals, including the draft for the anti-hopping law.
Bersih hopes that Wan Junaidi’s remark and the postponement of the consultation meeting is not a signal that the government is having second thoughts about pushing through some important reforms before the general election (GE15).
The passing of a law to prevent or deter party-hopping as soon as possible is one of the key terms of the memorandum of understanding signed between the Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob-government and Pakatan Harapan on September 13, last year.
The commitment of the government and the largest opposition bloc in Parliament to implement the anti-hopping law, Undi18, prime ministerial two-term limit, parliamentary reform and a range of other reforms are important not only to stabilise politics but also to strengthen our democracy.
Bersih acknowledges that the issue of party-hopping is a complex one with many definitions, legal, intra-party and electoral considerations, and to find a perfect solution is near impossible.
But we are also of the view that in the wake of the Sheraton Move, where party-hopping caused the collapse of the federal government twice, and directly or indirectly triggered the change of eight state governments in the last two years, the enactment of a law to prevent party-hopping in Malaysia is an absolute necessity to restore political stability and even more important than that, the confidence of the Malaysian public in our democracy.
In our opinion, as its most basic, the following would be considered as party-hopping for the anti-hopping law:
- An elected representative leaving his/her party to join another party or going independent
- An independent representative joining a political party
- An elected representative resigning on his/her own volition from the party and/or seat
- An elected representative sacked by his/her party
If any of the above were to take place, their seat would be declared vacant automatically, and a by-election called in a traditional anti-hopping law.
Bersih’s preference is an anti-hopping recall law, which will not automatically vacate the party-hopper’s seat but provides a recall procedure for the party-hopper’s constituents to vacate the seat.
This would avoid the traditional anti-hopping law’s three fundamental pitfalls due to its rigidity: first, a party leader may eliminate his/her intra-party rivals by sacking them from the party and effectively from the Parliament; second, such power can make MPs blind followers of their party leaders, and the Parliament a rubber stamp to any prime minister who commands a single-bloc majority government; third, it would freeze the party system by preventing emergence of new parties due to genuine political divide in existing parties, such as Amanah, Bersatu and Warisan in 2015-2016.
Nonetheless, we will support the enactment of the proposed anti-hopping law but hope that the following concerns are addressed.
- Article 48(6) where a representative who resigns from his/her seat is barred from contesting for five years, be repealed.
This will allow a representative to resign as a matter of principle from his/her party and contest for the same seat to get a fresh mandate from his/her voters. If this Article is not repealed, the representative would have to face the indignity of being sacked before being allowed to recontest.
- The states should have the freedom to enact their own anti-hopping law, whether the traditional anti-hopping law, the anti-hopping recall law proposed by Bersih and Pengerang MP Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, or any other design.
To this end, the amendment to Article 10 to allow restriction on freedom of association over party-hopping must include “state constitutions” alongside “the federal constitution”.
At the same time, the Eighth Schedule of the federal constitution should not be amended to force a carbon copy of the federal Parliament’s traditional anti-hopping law onto the states.
Bersih calls on the law minister and the government of Ismail Sabri to table the proposed anti-hopping law in the coming Parliament sitting on February 28 and ensure that it becomes law after taking into consideration the inputs of MPs, CSOs and the public.
The passage of the anti-hopping law will restore public confidence in our electoral system and give voters a reason to come out and vote in GE15. – The Vibes, February 17, 2022
Bersih is a non-governmental coalition campaigning for free and fair elections in Malaysia