UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has criticised the Government’s move to defer the tabling of an anti-hopping bill again and questioned if there were any duplicities in play over the delay.
In a Facebook post, Zahid said that the further deferment in tabling the bill seems to indicate a lack of assertiveness and political will, saying that the deferment would be a massive blow to Malaysians who have been waiting for a long time for such a law to be enacted.
He said this in response to news reports on Wednesday (April 6) that the tabling of the anti-hopping bill which was scheduled to take place on Monday (April 11) has been deferred again.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar was reported as saying by English daily The Star that they needed more time to deliberate the definition of “party-hopping”.
On this matter, Zahid pointed out that UMNO is the party most affected when some of its MPs party-hopped after Barisan Nasional’s defeat in the previous general election (GE14).
“The delay in tabling the bill seems to indicate that there is no assertiveness and political will. Are there any duplicities in play in this matter?” he questioned.
“I have already stated that the current pact between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition needs to be re-evaluated as it seems weak in expediting the tabling and passing of this law.
“It is now time for members of the Government from UMNO to take a stronger stand in handling this matter before they incite greater anger from the people who want the anti-hopping law to be expedited.”
Despite the deferment of the bill, Wan Junaidi said that the special Dewan Rakyat sitting on April 11 will go ahead with the tabling of a constitutional amendment to facilitate the tabling of the anti-hopping bill.
The bill was initially set to be tabled on March 24, the final day of the first session of the Dewan Rakyat sitting this year. – April 7, 2022
