Will Pakatan cancel political MOU, asks Pasir Gudang MP

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan should review its commitment to the political Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) after the postponement of the anti-party hopping Bill, says Hassan Abdul Karim (pic).

The Pasir Gudang MP said this is the "moment of truth" for Pakatan's presidential council since it had previously said that the MOU would be cancelled should the government fail to table the Bill.

"The anti-hopping Bill is a core matter in the MOU (with the government).Will the council still bravely stand with its previous stance," said Hassan in a statement on Thursday (April 7).

On Wednesday (April 6), the government announced that the proposed anti-hopping law will not be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday (April 11).

The proposed law has been deferred again after the Cabinet, which met on Wednesday, called for more study to be done on the definition of "party hopping".

However, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the special Dewan Rakyat sitting would go ahead with the tabling of a constitutional amendment to facilitate the anti-hopping Bill later.

Hassan said that it would be meaningless to only table the constitutional amendment in Parliament without the anti-hopping bill.

"The 15th General Election is expected to be called within the next four to five months. Without any anti-hopping law being enforced, the act of party hopping will repeat again," he said.

"The only thing that can block party hopping is through strong and stern legislation in the form of an anti-party hopping law," he added.