KUCHING: The state government should follow suit and enact a similar anti-hopping law, said Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen.
Chong applauded Prime Minister Datuk Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, saying he was doing the right thing when anti-hopping Bill was finally brought to the Dewan Rakyat by the Prime Minister on Wednesday.
“If you do the right thing, you will find more friends in Pakatan Harapan (PH) than in UMNO – that was my message to the Prime Minister during my debate in the Anti-Hopping Bill tabled in the Parliament today.
“Though some in UMNO were trying to block the Bill, we, the PH, have sufficient number to complement those in the government supporting the Bill, to see the Bill through the 2/3rd majority threshold in Parliament,” he added.
Chong urged the Federal Law Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi, who was instrumental in pushing the agenda for the tabling of the anti-hopping law, to do likewise back in Sarawak since he was also a member of the Sarawak government’s party, the Parti Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB).
“In Sarawak, with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) having a huge majority in the state legislative assembly (DUN), party hopping may not result in any change of government.
“However, party-hopping amongst the GPS component parties, such as from the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) to PBB, is also not a good parliamentary practice and culture,” he said in a statement today.
The tabling of the anti-hopping Bill was one of the main conditions imposed by Pakatan Harapan in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the government and the PH parties in September, 2021.
Chong pointed out that there were many sceptics who doubted that the government would honour the terms and thus chided PH for signing the MOU and being so trusting.
“But we did not stop fighting for the cause and trying to achieve our reform agenda. We leveraged on our numbers and the weak position of the current Prime Minister.
“The anti-hopping Bill proves that our persistence does pay off. Though we are not in the government, we managed to leverage our numbers to achieve some of our reform agenda for the country and the people.
“That shows the importance and effectiveness of a strong and united opposition vis-à-vis a weak and divided ruling government,” he said.
Thus, to save the democracy and the integrity as well as the sanctity of the Parliament, he said it was vital that the anti-hopping law was passed to restore public confidence in the parliamentary democracy.
He also said that there was still about a year to the expiry of the present parliamentary term.
There was no rush, he added, for an election.
“And there is some time for the Prime Minister to institute more reforms to government’s system which has been destroyed and eroded by the Barisan Nasional over the past decades,” he said.
“Therefore, both the present government and the opposition should take this opportunity to work together to put in place more institutional reforms in our system.”
