Push to make anti-hop law a reality

KOTA KINABALU: As calls to push for the anti-hopping law in the state grow louder among political leaders, there is still no official announcement on whether the Sabah government under Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor will table the Bill in the legislative assembly meeting next month.

However, anticipation is high among the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition partners and also the Opposition for the law to finally become a reality.

The state assembly is scheduled to sit from May 22-25.

Sabah DAP chairman Datuk Frankie Poon said he hoped to see the anti-hopping Bill tabled then.

“It will be for political stability for now and for the sake of Sabah’s future,” said Poon, whose party is part of the state unity government under a GRS-Pakatan Harapan pact.

Sabah Barisan Nasional and Sabah Umno chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin is also hopeful that the anti-hopping law, adopted by the Federal Government in October last year, will be put in place in the state to stop assemblymen from hopping to another party.

Bung Moktar, whose party lost several assemblymen who aligned themselves with GRS or joined Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah led by Hajiji, said the Chief Minister had indicated last November that the anti-defection law would be adopted.

“It will be best to table it in the next assembly session,” he said.

A state minister, Phoong Jin Zhe, who is Sabah DAP secretary, said Pakatan wanted the anti-hopping Bill tabled in the state assembly.

However, he was not present at the last state Cabinet meeting and was not certain about the latest development with regard to the anti-hopping law.

Sabah legislative assembly speaker Datuk Seri Kadzim Yahya said they had yet to be informed by the government about the tabling of the Bill at the first meeting of this year, to be opened by Yang di-Pertua Negeri (TYT) Tun Juhar Mahiruddin.

“We have yet to be notified by the government on what Bills would be tabled in the coming meeting. For now, it is only the policy speech by the TYT that will certainly be debated,” he said.

Since the Sabah state election on Sept 26, 2020, more than half of the 73 elected assemblymen have defected from their original parties.

The defectors included Hajiji, who led a mass crossover of leaders from Sabah Bersatu late last year and now heads the local-based Gagasan Rakyat.

Parti Warisan and Sabah Barisan also lost their assemblymen in subsequent crossovers that gave GRS more than a two-thirds majority in the assembly currently.

Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal recently said he would want to table a private member’s Bill on the anti-hopping law if the state government did not table it.

Some state government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a high likelihood the anti-defection Bill would be tabled.

Apart from Warisan, Umno and DAP, leaders of various parties in the state including Sabah STAR, Upko and Parti Bersatu Sabah have publicly called on Hajiji’s government to table the law.