PUTRAJAYA should take the blame for the defeat of the motion on the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) and not pin the loss on opposition lawmakers, Anthony Loke said.

In his first parliamentary debate as DAP’s secretary-general, Loke said he did not expect the government to lose the vote as it counts on more than 114 MPs among its ranks.

“Despite the support it has from these MPs, only 84 showed up to vote while 30 others were absent and this included Pekan (Najib Razak), Bagan Datuk (Ahmad Zahid Hamidi), and several others,” he said during the debate on the constitutional amendment bill today.

“The 30 who did not show up were the ones who failed to pass the amendment so do not blame us (the opposition),” he said.

Although it could not be established why most of the 30 were not present, what could be confirmed is that Najib was in court for his role in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal.

The amendment bill – tabled by Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin – to extend the enforcement of subsection 4(5) of Sosma by five years was rejected by a division vote (86-84) in Parliament yesterday.

Loke also corrected Annuar Musa (Ketereh-BN), who claimed that Pakatan Harapan (PH) lawmakers had nullified the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between PH and Putrajaya because they voted against the Sosma amendment.

“I want to correct what YB Ketereh said yesterday on Facebook. YB Ketereh said that we have canceled the MOU because we rejected the proposal.

“He used provision 3.3B of our MOU, which reads ‘subject to the evaluation and implementation of the transformation in this MOU of understanding, PH takes a supportive or neutral stance in the process of approving any government motion or bill of law’,” he said.

“He stopped there but the sentence in the MOU had a continuation, which reads ‘another bill, whose failure to pass it is a form of distrust or lack of confidence in the government after the process of drafting the bill was negotiated and agreed upon in principle’,” he said.

“This is also in line with what we agreed in the MOU. This clearly shows that even though we have a MOU, it does not mean that we support all or oppose all. There are things we agree with we support, there are things we disagree, we oppose because that is our right as opposition, as lawmakers.”

Nevertheless, Loke said the Sosma amendment bill was not negotiated with the opposition.

“We did not agree and rejected the Sosma proposal but does that mean that prime minister has lost support? The answer is no because our obligation is to approve the Budget 2022, which we did. So the question of the motion of trust in the PM does not arise at all,” he said.

Loke said if there was suspicion that the opposition had lost trust in the PM then a motion of confidence should be brought forth in Parliament.

“But you will see that the PM does have our support if this motion comes up,” he said.

Loke said it was a parliamentary victory that the opposition won yesterday as it proved that not all motions or bills brought by the executive can be approved and showed that Parliament is not a rubber stamp.

However, Loke said the opposition will support the constitutional amendment bill today.

Besides Annuar, Zahid has also called on the government to reexamine the MOU.

Umno deputy president Mohamad Hasan also cast doubt on the opposition’s credibility.

Both claimed that PH had violated the MOU by refusing to support the government. – March 24, 2022.