IS YOUR MP ON THE LIST?
Over the course of roughly four years, MPs have actively moved between sides through the different administrations of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri.
Today, the government and leaders from the Opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) will meet to finalise the Anti-Party Hopping Bill that is hoped to be tabled in Parliament on April 11.
The calls for such a law to regulate the movement of elected
representatives have grown louder in recent months, especially as Malaysian
politics went through a roller-coaster ride since the Barisan Nasional (BN) was
replaced by PH in May 2018.
Two changes in governments. PH has now included the law as part
of a deal with the current government led by Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob —
which many observers see may stave off Malaysian voters’ apathy and loss in
trust in democracy which has resulted in lower and lower voter turnouts in
recent snap elections.
Since 2018, over 40 MPs have swapped parties, terminated from
party, or gone independent, even switching their allegiances from supporting
the Opposition to the Government.
This makes it almost 20 per cent, or one-fifth, of the total 222
MPs.
This also included MPs who left their parties to form a splinter
party, such as Parti Pejuang Tanah Air which was formed by former Parti Pribumi
Bersatu Malaysia leaders, and new parties such as Malaysia United Democratic
Alliance (Muda) and Parti Bangsa Malaysia.
In addition, the rise of the ultimately short-lived PH
government and the historic loss of BN have also seen new coalitions such as
Perikatan Nasional (PN) that currently includes Bersatu, PAS and Gerakan, and
also the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
Over the course of roughly four years, MPs have actively moved
between sides through the different administrations of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,
Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri, resulting in a complex series of
inter-party movements.
Before and after ‘Sheraton Move’
In the year after PH took power in Putrajaya, 15 UMNO MPs had
joined Bersatu — itself a splinter party of UMNO — to be part the then
government. Another UMNO MP, Yameni Hafez Musa (Sipitang), would also do the
same at the end of 2019.
PKR also saw two entries from independent MPs, Larry Sng (Julau)
and Jugah Muyang (Lubok Antu), who both used to be in Parti Rakyat Sarawak
prior to the general election.
Sng would later leave PKR to form Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM)
last year, and Jugah has also reverted to a independent, now supporting PN.
February 2020 saw the shock resignation of Dr Mahathir due to
the so-called “Sheraton Move”, which would see his own party Bersatu form the
PN government with former rivals UMNO and PAS.
Following this, 21 Bersatu MPs became part of the PN government.
The remaining five turned independent, with four of them later forming Pejuang
in August 2020.
Eleven PKR MPs also turned independent. They would later join
Bersatu.
The long period of pandemic which started weeks after Muhyiddin
was sworn in as the prime minister, ultimately led to the fall of his
administration after cases spike following the Sabah state election in
September 2020.
He later resigned in August 2021, replaced with Ismail Sabri who
has formed a memorandum of agreement with PH in order to solidify his position
in the Dewan Rakyat and prevent yet another government change.
Both sacked from Bersatu in May 2020, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul
Rahman (Muar) would form his own party Muda at the end of that year while
Maszlee Malik (Simpang Renggam) joined PKR in January 2021 after remaining as
an independent for nearly a year.
Most recently, Datuk Khairuddin Aman Razali (Kuala Nerus) was
sacked from Islamist party PAS, and he became an independent supporting PN.
Just yesterday, Datuk Masir Kujat (Sri Aman) left Parti Sarawak
Bersatu to become a pro-government independent. Masir had just joined that
party in March 2019, and was formerly in Parti Rakyat Sarawak under BN.
Suffice to say, how the Dewan Rakyat looks now is very much
different from how it was just after the 14th general election.
Putrajaya will now attempt to amend the Federal Constitution
through a Bill that would outlaw party-hopping and also limit the tenure of a
prime minister.
However, the government had decided to postpone the amendment to
April 11 from its initial deadline after the last sitting ended on March 24.
In a statement on March 18, de facto law minister Datuk Seri Wan
Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the decision was made after the Cabinet determined
that more input was needed from stakeholders, “particularly” from the government
side.
He added that this was to guarantee the Bill garners the
adequate two-thirds majority support needed to amend the Federal Constitution,
once it is tabled in Parliament.
Previously, PH said it
was ready to take to the streets if the anti-party hopping Bill was not tabled
and passed within this Parliament sitting.
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