The Anti-Hopping Bill has been passed, but gaps remain to be addressed

KUALA LUMPUR: The long-awaited Anti-Hopping Bill was unanimously passed in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday, making its mark as a historic legislation against political defections.

It saw 209 MPs voting in favour through a bloc vote, with another 11 absent.

Aira Azhari of The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) described the Bill as a significant first step towards discouraging politicians from switching parties.

However, the Senior Manager of the Democracy and Governance Unit noted that there were still some gaps to be addressed within the current constitutional amendments.

“One of the problems that the Bill does not address is what happens when an entire party pulls out of a coalition. This is what happened during the Sheraton Move in 2020,” she said, referring to the mass defection that led to the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.

The Bill’s tabling was one of the key conditions of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government and PH.

Under the Bill, any MP who leaves a political party in one coalition to join another, whether in the same coalition or different one, will lose their seat. It only applies to individual MPs who decide to switch parties in between election periods.

There are exceptions to the rule, though, such as if the MP is sacked from a party, elected as Dewan Rakyat speaker or if the MP’s party is dissolved or de-registered.

Aira acknowledged that this was a difficult loophole to regulate, given that Malaysian politics often sees various political parties coming together to form a coalition prior to a general election.

“As long as the political and electoral system remains that way, we need to remember that there will probably be more occasions where the whole party decides to leave the governing coalition, which then causes the government to lose their majority.

“This is a concern that needs to be talked about.”

In the longer term, she stressed that it was important for Malaysia to adopt more wholesale reforms that put the public’s interest first.

The more democratic alternative to curb party-hopping, she said, was to have a recall election mechanism in place.

In the spirit of democracy, she added that it was important to uphold the people’s vote.

“How the Anti-Hopping law is being debated on, at the moment, is that the authority to decide whether or not the MP loses their seat comes from the legislation, rather than the people’s will.”

Aira reminded that there could be occasions where MPs switch from one party to another for legitimate reasons instead of money or corruption.

Commenting on the Bill’s impact on the Malaysian political landscape, she expected MPs to be more cautious before deciding to defect to another party, which would give way to more political stability.

She also hoped that the Anti-Hopping Bill would open doors for more institutional reforms in the country, including laws to address political financing and ensure an independent parliamentary system.