Sibuti MP confident party hopping bill will receive bipartisan support

KUCHING: Sibuti MP Lukanisman Awang Sauni believes the upcoming Constitution Amendment Bill to prevent party hopping will receive bipartisan support from members of the Dewan Rakyat.

He conceded that some MPs may not agree with some aspects of the bill but is optimistic it will get the necessary two third majority support needed to be passed.

“For the MPs from the GPS, we will fully support the amendment to the Constitution of the Bill banning party hopping where we will participate in the debate, including myself.

“I also expect it to get full support from other parliamentarians although there are still those who do not agree on some matters,” he said when met by reporters after attending the PBB Youth meeting at the PBB headquarters here yesterday.

Lukanisman, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee for the constitutional amendment, said that starting this week, they will hold an engagement session with all political parties, whether the opposition or the government, to clarify the amendment.

The Bill will be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday (July 18) while the debate will take place on July 27.

On a related matter, he expected the Dewan Rakyat sitting to be challenging with major issues to be raised by MPs including the issue of rising prices of goods, the economy as well as government instability.

¡§The government’s biggest challenge is responding to the issues of the people’s problems that we see as very important to address.

“We have to be ready to provide aid packages to the people to ease their hardship,” he added.

According to Lukanisman, this sitting will also see several existing acts being submitted including the Sexual Harassment Bill.

He also expected the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Federal Government and Pakatan Harapan to be touched during the Dewan Rakyat sitting.

“It will be determined whether there will be MoU 2.0 or discontinued,” he said.