PKR’s past attempts at wooing MPs from rival parties to support opposition chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s bid to become prime minister did not amount to an endorsement of party-hopping, said party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
In an interview with news portal FMT he said that the opposition sought support from other parties as they needed at least 112 MPs to form a government.
“However, we did not ask them to switch parties but merely provide additional support for Anwar (to become prime minister),” he pointed out.
The Pakatan Harapan government collapsed in February 2020 after 22 months in power and was replaced in Putrajaya by the Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin-led Perikatan Nasional.
According to Saifuddin the decision to seek support from other lawmakers was reached collectively among party members and Anwar should not take the blame for it.
An anti-party hopping law is one of the main conditions of the confidence and supply agreement that Pakatan had signed with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government in September 2021.
Then-DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said on March 20, 2022 that the memorandum of understanding (MOU) will be “finished and ended” should the anti-party hopping law not be tabled as promised.
The much-anticipated anti-party hopping bill was not tabled on March 21 nor April 11 as originally promised by the federal government.
Instead, the Dewan Rakyat decided that the bill needed to be further worked on by an 11-member bipartisan select committee headed by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.
Recently Wan Junaidi said that Ismail Sabri had given his assurance that the anti-party hopping law will be tabled in the July Parliamentary sitting.
The Prime Minister also said that there is “no intention to not table or delay the tabling of the anti-party hopping bill”. – April 27, 2022
Main photo credit: FMT
