The Pakatan Harapan Supreme Council today assured Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob that Pakatan Harapan MPs will support the passage of the anti-job-hopping law at a special parliamentary session on April 11.
“The Prime Minister has promised that the notice of the special session of the House of Commons scheduled for April 11 has been sent to MPs and there will be no changes.”
In this regard, the Pakatan Harapan Supreme Council also promised that all Pakatan Harapan MPs who attended the special session of the parliament will vote in favor of this amendment to the constitution.
Commentator: Article 48.6 of the anti-job-hopping law that needs to be reviewed urgently
The anti-job-hopping law is the most important clause in the memorandum of understanding between the government and opposition parties signed in September 2021. The law will be introduced to the special parliament on April 11.
Any act of eliminating political frogs is worthy of the whole people's praise, but we can't rule out that some betrayal behaviors are based on the basis of public opinion, and no matter the anti-job-hopping law or the recall election law, it cannot encourage public opinion representatives to make the correct betrayal of the party. As the biggest obstacle is Article 48(6) of the Federal Constitution, that is, once a public opinion representative resigns, he will be punished with a five-year ban from running for election.
Why does Article 48(6) become one of the root causes that hinder public opinion representatives from petitioning for the people? Take Huang De, who launched the “million signatures to bury the rare earth factory” as an example. Before the 2018 May 9 election, he mainly fought against the Lynas rare earth factory, and attacked the Bentong seat of the then MCA president Liao Zhonglai. Huang De defeated Liao Zhonglai by a majority of more than 2,000 votes.
However, after Pakatan Harapan took power, Huang De failed to stick to his pre-election position. Mahathir decided in 2019 to extend the operating license of the Lynas rare earth plant. At this time, Huang De was only verbally objecting to the Pakatan Harapan government. His decision was unstoppable, subjecting him to the cynicism of opposition parties and public opinion, and in the end, Huang De appeared to fade out of the political mainstream, like a congressman abandoned by his own party and allies.
We cannot rule out that Article 48(6) of the Constitution is the main reason why Huang De dare not act against the will of the Party. As a result, once the decision of the cabinet is not taken, the disciplinary action of the own party will follow one after another. Those who are lightly will be marginalized by the Party Central Committee, and those who will lose the opportunity to run for elections will be reduced to marginalized people within the party. Second, the consequence of resigning as a member is that they cannot be re-elected within five years, which is equivalent to obliterating a person's political future.
