KUALA LUMPUR: The proposed Anti-Party Hopping Bill should only be levelled on elected representatives and senators in the interest of preserving one's fundamental freedom of association.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Pejuang-Langkawi) said the special select committee charged to weigh the bill had to study this concern thoroughly to preserve fundamental rights including the freedom of association.
"This anti-hopping law needs to be enacted but must be limited to MPs, state assemblyman and possibly senators. If it is limited to them and other non-elected representatives are free to change associations or parties, that preserves their human rights.
"However, for MPs, the impact of the leap is so great that it makes our country unstable and the government in turn is not respected by other countries.
"I agree to the in-depth study of this and the amendment to the constitution because if it is done without bearing this in mind, maybe the fundamental rights of other people who are not involved in this house would also be denied," he said during the debate on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill (No. 3) 2022 at Dewan Rakyat today.
Dr Mahathir also urged the select committee to look into areas where the amendments could be misused.
"Maybe what is done might be incomplete, maybe there will also be abuses of the law, for example while we guarantee a person's right to hold or join any association, the government has the right not to register an association.
"With that, the people's rights have been lost. Things like this should be given due attention."
