PETALING JAYA: DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang has called for an anti-hopping law to stop MPs from jumping parties.
He said he had moved a motion in 1976 for MPs to stand down from their seat within 30 days if they resigned or were expelled from their party.
He said it was the Bill that he had proposed 40 years ago and he stands by it.
The DAP MP for Iskandar Putri said there should be a by-election if an MP jumps ship, they must go to the people to renew their mandate if they join another party.
“Umno politicians wanting to join Pakatan Harapan should first repent as they had previously supported former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and 1MDB,“ he said.
He said these former Umno leaders should first come out with statements admitting to their mistakes first.
Earlier in a statement, he said Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has defied increasing pressure from the party as well as pro-Umno NGOs to step down.
Ahmad Zahid declared that the only way to remove him as Umno president was through the party’s general assembly by over 146,000 delegates to fulfil the requisite two-thirds quorum, according to the DAP adviser.
“This raises the question whether Umno will have to build a mega-stadium with the capacity to accommodate at least 146,000 delegates before Zahid could be removed as president,“ Lim said in a statement.
“The past four days marked the lowest ebb in the 69-year-old history of Umno, as with 38 MPs in Parliament with the exodus of 16 MPs, Umno has created history in having the least number of Umno MPs in Parliament for six decades since 1959.
“Now, from the 54/222 parliamentary seats won by Umno in the 2018 General Election, Umno is left with 38 MPs – i.e. from the height of Umno MPs comprising 56.7% of all MPs in 1964, 49.7% of all MPs in 2004 to the present 17.1% of MPs in Parliament.”
If Larut MP Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin is right, 36 BN MPs including 33 from Umno, had only just a month ago signed letters of support for Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and that Zahid had been kept completely in the dark about it, then as many as another 20 Umno MPs may leave the party, Lim said.
“This may result in Umno, which at one time claimed the divine right to rule the country, to be reduced to the regional status of PAS or even in having fewer MPs than PAS for the first time in Malaysian history,“ he added.
