Anwar, Guan Eng, Mat Sabu meet PM to discuss anti-party hopping Bill, corruption and post-flood issues

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 — Opposition leaders Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng and Mohamed Sabu today held a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to discuss three key issues affecting the nation at present.

In a statement, they said the meeting between the leaders from Pakatan Harapan (PH) component parties PKR, DAP and Parti Amanah Negara in Parliament lasted for an hour.

“We raised the question on the anti-party hopping Bill to be tabled in the next session of Parliament.

“Also discussed was the rampant corruption issues and post-flood measures,” Anwar posted on Facebook.

PH had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to ink their bipartisan cooperation with the Ismail Sabri administration in September last year.

Last month, PH had called on Ismail Sabri to give a full explanation in Parliament on his government’s delayed response to the recent catastrophic floods nationwide.

The PH presidential council pointed to widespread public criticism against the government on social media and said this must be addressed in a special parliamentary session soon.

This comes as Malaysia’s proposed new law against switching between political parties is expected to be tabled in Parliament during the February to March meeting, which is much earlier than the initial July timeline given.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law) Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar had earlier said Putrajaya wishes to speed up the tabling of the anti-party hopping Bill in line with the federal government’s commitment towards the memorandum of understanding (MoU) previously signed on September 13, 2021 by the government and PH.

He said the meeting had decided that the anti-party hopping Bill would be finalised and tabled in Parliament’s first meeting this year that is due to start on February 28.

Previously, Wan Junaidi had said that the anti-party hopping Bill was expected to be brought to Parliament in the July session this year.

In the same statement today, Wan Junaidi had also said that the drafting of the anti-party hopping Bill or provisions required detailed studies and holistic engagement sessions in order for policies to be decided first.