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KOTA KINABALU – Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) president Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili says he wants “no loopholes” when Sabah adopts the anti-party hopping law.
In his speech read by the party deputy president, Datuk Seri Joachim Gunsalam, Ongkili said lawmakers can be very innovative in exploiting legal loopholes when they want to switch parties.
“They will be creative in looking into ways to exploit the loopholes to jump out of their parties,” said Ongkili, adding that the proposed law must look into ways to put an end to party hopping.
PBS, which is the oldest party in Sabah, has been instrumental in formulating the state’s own anti-hopping law in the 1980s but it was declared unconstitutional as it contravened the freedom of association as enshrined in the Federal Constitution at the time. The state law was later repealed.
At the federal level, the anti-party hopping law came into effect in October last year following a constitutional amendment in Parliament last year.
Party hopping had led to the fall of previous Sabah governments in the past. The collapse of the PBS government in the 1990s was also due to politicians switching sides.
In 2018, Sabah saw a mass exodus of Umno leaders after the 14th general election while in 2020, the Warisan-led government fell and paved the way for the Sabah election.
The formation of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah-Barisan Nasional (GRS-BN) government the same year saw several Warisan assemblymen leaving the party right up to the political crisis in January this year, which was dubbed the “Kinabalu Move.”
Subsequently, several Umno and Warisan politicians had also abandoned their parties to join the present GRS-led government.
PBS is also a component of the GRS-led government and had been vocal on the formulation and adoption of the anti-party hopping law.
However, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, who is also GRS chairman, has yet to set any timeline to adopt the law. – The Vibes, March 6, 2023