Hanipa: PN leaders must remember they allowed anti-hopping loopholes

Former deputy minister Mohamed Hanipa Maidin is the latest to remind Perikatan Nasional leaders that it was their representatives who blocked attempts to tighten the anti-hopping law.

In a statement today, Hanipa backed PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail who said that PN countered Pakatan Harapan's efforts to introduce stringent laws that would force MPs to vacate their seats should they go against the party whip.

“By the way, Gobind Singh (DAP) and I ( Amanah) were also part of the Harapan delegation in the technical committee working on the draft of the anti-party-hopping bill last year.

“The technical committee working on the draft anti-party-hopping was established by the then prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob who publicly proclaimed all the names of the members of such a committee in Parliament.

“The technical committee was non-partisan in nature as it was then represented by MPs from different political parties either in the government or in the opposition side,” recalled Hanipa (above), who served as deputy law minister from 2018 to 2020.

He said there were a lot of meetings being conducted by the committee which was chaired by then minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and law) Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.

Saifuddin’s claim

Hanipa backed Saifuddin’s claim that Harapan’s position was that MPs who act against the decision of the whip on matters such as the supply bill, vote of confidence, and any bill that has an implication on the position of the government, would have lost their seat and a by-election would be called.

Saifuddin said Harapan also proposed that MPs who are sacked from the party for disciplinary issues or violations of the party constitution be considered to have lost their seats.

“PN was represented by (Bersatu secretary-general) Hamzah Zainudin and (PAS secretary-general) Takiyuddin Hassan. PN did not agree with Harapan’s proposals,” the home minister said.

Hanipa said assuming PN is still disputing this fact, it may refer to the official parliamentary report of the meeting as all the meetings were officially recorded.

Wan Junaidi recently said his original bill in 2021 addressed the loopholes that were recently used by four Bersatu MPs to go against PN and back Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

He said four ministers during the Ismail Sabri administration objected to a clause that stated if an MP changed their support in the Dewan Rakyat to the opposing bloc, the anti-hopping law would be triggered.

Since October, four Bersatu MPs have pledged support for Anwar in exchange for gaining access to RM3 million in government funding annually.

However, their loyalty has not yet been tested as bloc voting in Parliament has not been conducted.

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