COMMENT | There are no two ways about it. Bersatu MPs declaring support for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim - ostensibly to secure constituency funds - is an act of defection, even if those lawmakers say they remain loyal to Bersatu.

Not just that, these are defections that expose how faulty the anti-hopping provisions in the Federal Constitution are and make a mockery of them.

This is because, as per the anti-hopping law, as long as the Bersatu MPs supporting Anwar don’t quit their party or join another one, both Bersatu and those who voted these lawmakers into office have absolutely no means for recourse.

Further, the defections also highlight how placing the onus on the opposition to negotiate a deal for equal funding instead of the government giving it outright, leads to democracy being undermined.

But all this can be fixed, and there is no better time than now to fix it.

The government now essentially has more than...