THE government must review section 18c of the Societies Act 1966 so that lawmakers sacked from their parties and forced to vacate their seats can seek legal redress, said Muhyiddin Yassin. 

Referring to Pekan MP Najib Razak, the Bersatu president said it was unfair if convicted lawmakers were allowed to keep their seats while appealing their cases while sacked lawmakers were forced to vacate theirs.

“Under the Federal Constitution, a convicted person can remain MP until his case is decided by the Federal Court or his application for a royal pardon is decided. This process can take years.

“But an MP who speaks against his party will be sacked and then forced to vacate the seat as he cannot challenge the decision. Is this fair?” said the Pagoh MP during a debate on anti-party hopping legislation in Dewan Rakyat today.

Muhyiddin said no lawmaker would dare speak up against their parties if this was the case.

“This will cause an MP who represents the people to be muted and silenced. We are putting parties’ interest before the people’s,” said Muhyiddin. 

Section 18c of the Act is an ouster clause that forbids political party decisions from being challenged in court.

Ironically, while Muhyiddin referred to former Umno president Najib, who had sacked him from Umno for speaking up about the 1MDB scandal in 2016, the Bersatu president himself had sacked six MPs, including former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, for criticising his decision to take Bersatu out of the Pakatan Harapan doalition in February 2020.

Muhyiddin’s decision to take in 10 PKR lawmakers and withdraw Bersatu from the pact caused the federal government and PH state governments in Kedah, Perak, Malacca and Johor to collapse.

Six months later, the Muhyiddin-led Perikatan Nasional ousted the Warisan government in Sabah after more than a dozen assemblymen quit the party. 

Since 2018, Muhyiddin’s party Bersatu has gained 25 MPs and more than a dozen assemblymen and senators from defections.

In his speech, Muhyiddin said the proposed constitutional amendment to Article 10 (3a) would breach a person’s right of freedom of association. 

“We are now giving up our fundamental rights as individuals and MPs which are guaranteed by the constitution. Hence, we must be very careful to look into all the arguments when formulating a new anti party-hopping law,” said Muhyiddin. 

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

Earlier, the government decided to defer a bill to amend article 10(3a) of the constitution after PH said it would not support it in its current form as it would give the government too much power to decide whether lawmakers could switch parties while doing little to stop party hopping. – April 11, 2022.