INDEPENDENTS should be exempt from anti-party hopping laws and be allowed to switch parties at will as they won the seats on their own merits, Julau MP Larry Sng said today.

“Independents should be exempt because their mandate is from voters and they won based on their personal credibility,” he during a debate on anti party-hopping legislation in Dewan Rakyat today.

“We did not use party logos, slogans or funding,” said Sng, who won his seat as an Independent in 2018.

After winning his seat, Sng joined PKR, where he later became a vice-president. He was also appointed state chairman of Sarawak PKR. He reverted to his Independent status when he left PKR in 2021 to declare his support for then prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who was and remains the Perikatan Nasional chairman.

On November 21 last year, Sng was declared the deputy president of Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) before becoming president on January 8.

Sng today said the special select committee for anti party-hopping laws should consider the Independents’ situations.

“They should enact laws to protect the mandate of voters and not parties,” said Sng.

The 42-year-old first-term MP was born in Taiwan to Sarawak businessman Sng Chee Hua.

His father Chee Hua was the Pelagus assemblyman from 1991-2001.

Dewan Rakyat is debating the drafting of anti-party hopping laws in a special sitting today before deciding on sending the bill to a bipartisan special select committee. – April 11, 2022.