In debating the Supplementary Supply Bill (2021) 2022, the Amanah president said the nation’s political climate had been unstable since the Sheraton Move in 2020 which led to the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government.
This drove people to lose their trust in Malaysia’s parliamentary democracy, which Mohamad said, was evidenced by the low voter turnouts in recent state elections.
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“The people have lost confidence in the parliamentary democratic system and in the elected representatives. To fix this, the tabling of the anti-hopping bill must be expedited.
“If the bill isn’t introduced in this Dewan Rakyat meeting, my friends and I will take to the streets to push for it.
“It’s like we’re being ignored when we speak in Parliament.
“Table the anti-hopping bill immediately. This is the last warning from us,” he said.
Mohamad also said the Ismail Sabri Yaakob-led administration was akin to a family warring against itself, despite living in the same house, with leaders in the government bloc threatening one another openly.
“I don’t even know what to call this government … is it a Barisan Nasional or Perikatan Nasional government?” he said.
He said the unstable nature of the government was a deterrent to foreign investment, dealing a blow to the economy.
Have special sitting to pass anti-hopping bill, says Nazri
Mohamad’s call for the anti-hopping bill to be tabled immediately received the support of Nazri Aziz (BN-Padang Rengas).
“I support his call but only 80%, not 100%, because in his speech, he said BN and PN are the sources of political instability. But we all know that it was Pakatan Harapan that was unstable in the first place.
“I don’t deny there are clashes between BN and PN, but it is not to the extent of leading to the collapse of the government.
“The PH government collapsed. So don’t blame us (Umno and BN) for the political instability.
“Umno and BN had said that we can stay as the opposition throughout the five years (of PH’s rule). But the clashes between them (PH component parties) led to political instability.”
Nazri said he was confident that the anti-hopping bill would get the majority support if tabled.
“For me, it is important for the bill to be tabled first. If the bill is imperfect, we can amend it at the committee stage.
“I am sure this law will get 100% support from the MPs unless some of them want to be ‘frogs’.
“Even if there is a need for a constitutional amendment to achieve this, I am confident we will get two-thirds support.
“I call upon the Cabinet not to think too much on tabling this bill. We have a memorandum of understanding with the opposition. If we cannot table this bill in this Dewan meeting, we can always have a special sitting for this.
“We can’t allow party-hopping to go on, it is embarrassing.”