A Pakatan Harapan flag is seen along Jalan Sg Chua in Balakong August 23, 2018. – Malay Mail photo
KUALA LUMPUR (June 13): Leaders of the Opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition are seeking an immediate meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to discuss four institutional reforms that were part of their bipartisan deal for cooperation ahead of next month’s Dewan Rakyat sitting.
The PH lawmakers expressed their disappointment with the PM for calling off a special parliamentary sitting to discuss the highly-anticipated anti-party hopping Bill that they had pushed for.
“We are disappointed by the government’s failure to hold a special sitting in the Dewan Rakyat for the tabling of the Anti-Party Hopping Bill as conveyed previously.
“Despite that, Pakatan Harapan hopes the Bill will be tabled, debated and passed in the first week of the Dewan Rakyat sitting beginning July 18,” they said in a joint statement today.
The statement bore the names of Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is also PKR president, his counterpart from Amanah Mohamad Sabu, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook, and Datuk Madius Tangau who helms Sabah-based United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko).
The Ismail Sabri administration previously indicated that MPs will be called for a special parliamentary sitting to discuss the anti-party hopping Bill in early July before the regular scheduled Dewan Rakyat sitting.
But last week, minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the special sitting is off the cards as many MPs were abroad or engaged in other parliamentary programmes that could not be delayed.
Wan Junaidi, who is in charge of law and parliamentary affairs, added that the special sitting would cost upwards of RM1 million and therefore was too costly to justify for a one-day affair.
The quartet noted that with the anti-party-hopping Bill, 15 out of the 18-point Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Opposition and the government last September have been met.
As such, they said the meeting with Ismail Sabri is to discuss the remaining three items, listed as: The two-term limit for the prime minister’s tenure, the Parliamentary Service Bill, and amendments to the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders.
The anti-party hopping Bill has been touted as one of the major bipartisan breakthroughs between the government and the Opposition.
The Bill aims to prevent MPs from hopping from one party to another for personal gain in order to maintain political stability.
If passed, a new provision 3A will be added under Article 10 of the Federal Constitution to restrict the freedom of association in relation to membership in a political party by elected representatives. – Malay Mail