Prime Minister Ismail Sabri should call general elections after all states have amended their respective state constitutions enacting the anti-hopping law to ensure uniformity, consistency, and certainty. There should be no different set of laws between the respective states and the Federal Constitution to cleanse the country’s political framework from dishonest opportunists who are willing to sell off their principles and betray the people’s mandate in pursuit of wealth and political posts.
Law Minister Wan Junaidi bin Tuanku Jaafar had indicated that the amendment to the Federal Constitution may be gazetted by next month after the Senate sits on 9 August to pass the constitutional amendments. However, he is still awaiting the Federal Court’s ruling on Nordin Salleh’s precedent case submitted by the Penang state government on the constitutionality of Penang’s anti-hopping law amended in 2012.
Further, some time is needed for consultations to be held by the Federal government with the respective state governments and no definite time frame has been set. Yesterday during my speech in Parliament, I had discussed with Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, who agreed that all 3 states under PH namely Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan would amend the respective state constitutions to incorporate the anti-hopping law.
Ismail should also give the same commitment and direct state governments under the BN/PN umbrella to also amend their respective state constitutions to enact the anti-hopping laws. For this reason, it is incumbent for Ismail to give effect to the anti-hopping law nationally by withholding general elections until this historic piece of legislation permeates every legislative body and infuses a new reformist spirit in future wakil rakyats.
Yesterday the long struggle of the opposition parties to clean up Malaysian politics took a giant leap forward by consigning political frogs to the dustbin. Let us fulfil this historic mission by cloaking the anti-hopping legislation not just with the force of law but imbued with a new moral force of political integrity and accountability to restore the people’s faith that their vote has so powerful a value that it cannot be bought and sold.