KOTA KINABALU, Feb 16 — Sabah could have deterred some of its latest political defections had it enacted an anti-hopping law, but analysts said state leaders appeared more interested in preserving the freedom its absence granted them.

Despite a landmark constitutional amendment last year to prohibit party hopping at the federal level, the move still required the individual states to adopt it before it would apply to their respective legislative assemblies.

While most states have already introduced enactments to complement the amendment, Sabah has remained among the holdouts that have shown no urgency to do so.

Sabah-based analysts contacted by Malay Mail expressed belief that the delay appeared to be self-serving, but pointed out to the state’s political parties that the freedom to defect would cut both ways.

Universiti Teknologi Mara senior lecturer Tony Paridi Bagang said that as long as the law did not exist in the state, Sabah would continue to experience the flux that has become synonymous with its political landscape.

Noting that the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah coalition had benefitted from not having the law in place both during and after the general election last November, he said it appeared there could have been some anticipation involved.

"I think GRS wanted to secure as many assemblymen to make sure that they are solid. Once all in place, then they’ll do it. They wanted [the representatives] that have strong support from their grassroots. This is an assurance that they could win the future election,” he said.

He said the method appeared effective as GRS, under Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor’s leadership, has ended up with 44 seats from the 79 in the state assembly, even after an attempted coup by some in the Sabah Barisan Nasional.

He recently consolidated his position further still when the assemblymen for Kunak, Tanjung Kapur and Banggi quit Parti Warisan to support him.

Post GE15, Hajiji also engineered an exodus from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, eventually leading his band to join with Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah.

"PGRS now led by Hajiji and for sure he wants more [assemblymen] to make his party dominant,” said Bagang, before predicting that the defectors were apt to switch allegiances later on so long as it was legal to do so.

However, analysts like Singapore Institute of International Relations senior fellow Oh Ei Sun and University Malaysia Sabah senior lecturer Lee Kuok Tiung were less certain that an anti-hopping law would eradicate the practice.

Instead, they said it was the nature of politicians to find the most beneficial alliances to them, and the legal loopholes that would allow them to pursue these.

"An anti-hopping law could perhaps deter to an extent outright switching of party affiliation. But whether it could deter change of confidence and support for a government remains to be seen.

"Point is if politicians have changes of their political heart, they would always seek loopholes to effectuate their desired changes,” said Oh.

Four former Bersatu MPs from Sabah have caused controversy after contesting in GE15 allegedly while still Bersatu members, which would have been a breach of the anti-hopping constitutional amendment.

However, they claim to have left the party before the election, further arguing that they had contested under the banner of GRS, a separate and legally registered coalition.

Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said that he will bring the matter to court.

Although seeing no necessity for the state to enact an anti-hopping enactment to be consistent with the Federal Constitution, Oh said it would still be prudent to do so in the interest of democracy.

"It’s better than nothing. But whether that would have deterred their motivation to hop, I do not know, as both there are hopping and anti-hopping benefit for all sides of the political divide nowadays. Maybe it’s better for them to keep their options open,” he said.

Lee argued that even the constitutional amendment was not watertight, and could still be tested by politicians determined enough to try.

"The anti-hoping act that exists today has loopholes and politicians will always be politicians.

"I think the state will move to table it soon to ‘lock’ the deal. No more hopping and jumping after. But they might not be in a hurry as they might expect some more might want to join Hajiji/ GRS,” he said.

Hajiji in October last year initially said that Sabah was keeping to the scheduled tabling of the anti-party hopping enactment during the assembly’s Budget 2023 sitting in late November, after the GE15.

However, he then said the two items would conflict, and deferred tabling the enactment, ostensibly to keep the focus of the sitting on the state budget.

There was later talk that the state would table the enactment in January, but that also did not materialise.

Parties like Warisan, Parti Bersatu Sabah and Pakatan Harapan have all called for the tabling to be expedited.