KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — After the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration through a backdoor government formed by Perikatan Nasional (PN), PH lawmakers will make a serious effort to introduce anti-party-hopping laws.

In an online forum on Facebook titled: “Never Despair — Finding Hope and Rebuilding Malaysia”, Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh said that this was something that the PH presidential council must look into and implement.

“What the PH leadership council need to discuss and put in place are anti-hopping mechanisms. You cannot just have a stringent process to choose candidates. Look at Saifuddin Abdullah, he wasn’t someone I consider to be at the top of the list (to jump parties).

“So, the only way to ensure no party hoppers is to be very strict,” said Yeoh, alluding that this was something that the party leadership should look into as part of its next election manifesto — as the public has aggressively begun to demand its implementation.

Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil who was part of the discussion then pointed out that Penang already has anti-party-hopping laws at state level and proposed that other PH ruling states should follow suit.

He said if a state representative jumps ship, the individual in question must resign and a by-election must be called.

Another panellist, former health minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad, also pointed out an amusing situation in the current government’s Cabinet and backbencher line up.

“I see a big paradox over the Ketereh constituency. In the last general election, it was a three-cornered fight there. You had Tan Sri Annuar Musa from Umno-BN, Senator Radzi Jidin from Bersatu using the PKR logo and the PAS candidate Wan Ismail Wan Jusoh.

“Now, all three parties who contested there are in the government with two full ministers. Why? Because of party hopping. So now we must put in place an anti-hopping law,” said Dzulkefly.

Yeoh took up his call and proceeded to challenge the Muhyiddin administration to heed the will of the people and have the courage to introduce the Bill in Parliament.

She added that it is highly likely that Sabah and Selangor will follow Penang’s footsteps and wanted to know if PN will do the same.

“This is a challenge to Tan Sri Muhyiddin’s government. Now based on people’s comments they want anti-hopping laws. So, will Tan Sri Muhyiddin be brave enough to put in anti-hopping law? For PH, when we campaign, we will do this because this is what disappointed the people,” she promised.