ISKANDAR PUTERI, Dec 4 — A Pakatan Harapan (PH) assemblyman urged the Johor government to enact an "anti-hopping” law to protect the state administration from political instability.

Perling assemblyman Cheo Yee How asserted that his proposal would beneficial to the assembly and Johor residents.

"There will not have any need for the ruling coalition to defeat Barisan Nasional (BN) by having ‘party hoppers’ as people are tired of this kind of thing,” he said when debating the Johor Budget 2019 during the Johor state assembly at the Sultan Ismail Building in Kota Iskandar today.

The two-term assemblyman said party hopping could destabilise the state government.

He cited the Perak constitutional crisis in 2008 and said the people felt betrayed by the defections that caused the Pakatan Rakyat state government then to collapse.

"I see the issue of party hopping as a serious matter and there is a need to take action before it turns into a malignant cancer.

"Personally, I am against party hopping irrespective if it involves both sides (of the political divide),” said Cheo.

Separately, Cheo called state Opposition Leader Datuk Hasni Mohammad’s move to give up the Opposition Room a betrayal of the people’s wishes and democracy.