PETALING JAYA: Retable the Bill to limit the Prime Minister's tenure to 10 years before the next general election, says the Stability and Accountability for Malaysia Project (Projek SAMA) says.
In a statement Tuesday (March 3), it said that the retabling must be accompanied by a public campaign to "engage public opinion".
"Without wide public support, the merits of this impactful reform can be easily dismissed for partisan or personal gains," it said.
It also condemned all 76 MPs (68 Opposition, eight government backbenchers) who had abstained or were absent for the vote, adding that they had denied Malaysia the benefits of having the 10-year term limit.
The group said these benefits include less concentration of power in a single person and an inter-generational renewal in national leadership.
"The absence of the eight government backbenchers was not principled opposition and deserves disciplinary action by unity government's chief whip Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof. Failure to administer discipline would encourage more irresponsible acts by rogue MPs when they sabotage a key policy agenda of the government, whether to embarrass the government, to extort personal patronage or simply fail to carry out their duty.
"A term limit is not about personalities. It is about protecting the nation from unchecked power. We call on all MPs to rise above politics and choose principle.
"History will remember who stood for reform," it said.
