It’s frustrating, says Wan Junaidi over delay in tabling proposed anti-hopping Bill

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has expressed his frustration over the delay of the proposed anti-party hopping Bill, after working on it for over eight months.

The Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Parliament and Law) said that he had to accept the fact the Cabinet was the highest decision-making body when it comes to such a decision.

"I am a Cabinet member and I need to accept what the Cabinet wants.

"My personal feelings are not important.

"It is frustrating," he told reporters after chairing a meeting with the Steering Committee for the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Transformation and Political Stability on Thursday (April 7).

Earlier, he announced that the special Dewan Rakyat sitting to table the Federal Constitution Amendments (Bill) will be extended for another day on April 12.

"After working for eight months, when there is a hitch, you will feel it," he said, adding that many are aware of his unhappiness.

Asked if there is any disagreement over the anti-party hopping Bill, he denied there was any act of political sabotage.

"It is not that they oppose the (anti-hopping) law. They just disagreed with several aspects of it. We must put the perspective correctly," said Wan Junaidi.

He was asked to respond to remarks made by Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who asked whether there were any "internal saboteurs" that caused the delay in tabling the Bill.

The anti-hopping law was supposed to have been tabled on the last day of the Dewan Rakyat meeting on March 24.

However, the government decided to postpone tabling the Bill to a one-day special sitting on April 11 to allow a further relook at the proposed law.