PETALING JAYA, July 6 — Pengerang MP Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said today she looks forward to the tabling of the Anti-Party Hopping Bill in Parliament this month, admitting that she cannot see herself facing the next general election without such a law.
The special adviser on law and human rights to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob expressed her hope that the law will be implemented soon, especially as the government will be occupied by a multitude of other laws that are scheduled to be tabled in the 12-day sitting starting next week.
"Regardless of what happens now, we really need an anti-hopping law. I don't think we can face GE15 without the anti-hopping law,” she told a forum organised by Bersih 2.0 and Malaysian Bar here, referring to the 15th general election.
Azalina said while some quarters are pushing for reform, most voters are unfortunately concerned more about bread and butter issues due to rising prices of goods and inflation.
"You might be seeing the reform issue, most will see the livelihood issue,” she said.
Azalina was one of the panelists in a forum titled "Separation of Attorney-General and Public Prosecutor - Roadmap to Reform” together with former attorney-general (AG) Tan Sri Tommy Thomas and lawyer Andrew Yong.
The forum had agreed on the need to separate the duties of the AG and public prosecutor, which would make the person holding the posts answerable to the Parliament.
However, Tommy said the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration failed to implement the reform despite it being in its election manifesto, since no minister wanted to spearhead the discussion of the Bill with the Cabinet and subsequently tabling it in the Parliament.
He gave the example of the Undi18 Bill which was taken by former youth and sports minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, from convincing the Cabinet to the MPs in the Parliament, which later saw the constitutional amendment passed.
"We had no Syed Saddiq. I can’t push the Bill on my own,” he said.
Tommy was appointed in July 2018 but resigned in February 2020 after the so-called "Sheraton Move" which saw the collapse of the PH government after 22 months.
