A SARAWAK civil society organisation, Rise of Social Efforts, is demanding that state premier Abang Johari Openg make his stand clear and unambiguous on the proposed anti-party hopping bill that could be voted on in Parliament in July.

The group, better known by its acronym Rose, said the Abang Johari should make clear what the intention of the state government is towards the federal government’s desire to amend the eighth schedule of the Federal Constitution – provisions to be inserted in the state constitutions – to standardise the anti-party hopping provisions between the states and territories of the federation.

The people of Sarawak have a right to know, Rose chairman Anne Teo said today.

Teo asked if the Sarawak government’s general silence on the law is an indication that it objects to the adoption of the same law at state level.

The only comment Abang Johari has made on the anti-party hopping law to date is that the Governor Abdul Taib Mahmud needs to give his consent before the federal-enacted anti-party hopping law could be enforced in the state.

Sarawak has an anti-party hopping provision in its state constitution in article 17 (7) (Disqualification of Membership).

It was inserted by an amendment in 1994 to get around the 1992 Supreme Court decision in the Nordin Salleh case.

Article 17(7)(a) reads: “Any person who has voluntarily given an undertaking to the speaker in writing that he will not resign his membership from the political party for which he stood or to which he belonged when he is elected to the Dewan Undangan Negeri, shall, if he resigns from the political party after being elected, be disqualified in the interest of public integrity and morality from continuing to be a member of the Dewan Undangan Negeri with effect from the date he resigned from the political party.”

However, Teo has labelled the provision as “impotent and weak” to deter assemblymen from jumping from one party to another as the obligation imposed on them is a voluntary one.

“Besides, how many of the current crop of recent newly elected assemblymen have given such an undertaking is anybody’s guess. There has been no public disclosure of such undertakings.

“And secrecy is antithetical to a good, working democracy,” she said.

Teo said Sarawak folk also have a right to know what improved form of anti-party hopping law the state government prefers.

“Our Sarawak government prides itself on that our state is better run than those in the peninsula. Now is the time for our government to show leadership in Malaysia on this anti-party hopping constitutional amendment that meets the aspirations of the rakyat for more democratic politics.”

Teo said the anti-party hopping provisions to be applied to state assemblymen must be one that is much stronger than the present article 17(7)(a). – May 7, 2022.