The Malaysian Insight

PENGERANG MP Azalina Othman Said today chided lawyers who had said she has no place in initiating an anti-party hopping law for Malacca.

Azalina defended her part to be involved in the affairs of the state government and its legislature as a Malaysian member of Parliament, albeit not as one of Malacca’s 28 elected assemblymen.

“Is a Malaysian MP an ‘outsider’?” the former Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker wrote in a tweet in direct response to the lawyers’ comments to FMT.

“PM8 (Muhyiddin Yassin-PN) and PM9 (Ismail Sabri Yaakob-BN) support AHL (anti-hopping law).

“AHL is part of (the) government and opposition’s MOU (memorandum of understanding),” she said.

Azalina said she would question the intentions of those who attempt to silence the fight in giving voters a voice and reinstate decent politics in Malaysia through the hybrid bill.

Yesterday, lawyers Muhammmad Rafique Rashid Ali and Syed Iskandar Syed Jaafar al-Mahdzar said Azalina had “crossed the line” when she met the Malacca Yang di-Pertua Negeri to discuss a “hybrid” anti-party hopping bill.

They advised Azalina, who is a special adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob on law and human rights, to focus on expediting the passing of the law at the federal level.

Earlier, Malacca governor Mohd Ali Rustam said in a statement that Azalina strongly believes that a state-level hybrid bill would be helpful to the Malacca elections to avoid post-election political instability, encourage voters to cast their votes and reinstate confidence in the democratic system.

The hybrid bill has two main goals, which is to sack elected representatives who party-hop and allow for voters to call for a recall election when their elected representatives jump ship. – November 4, 2021.